2024 OFC U-16 Men's Championship

2024 OFC U-16 Men's Championship

Tournament details
Host countries	Qualifying stage: Tonga Final tournament: Tahiti
Dates	Qualifying stage: 13–19 April 2024 Final tournament: 28 July – 10 August 2024
Teams	Final tournament: 8 Total: 11 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (10th title)
Runners-up	Fiji
Third place	New Caledonia
Fourth place	Tahiti
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Goals scored	77 (4.28 per match)
Attendance	3,500 (194 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Aaron Cartwright (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Aaron Cartwright
Best goalkeeper	Nicolas Kutran
Fair play award	Tahiti
← 2023 2025 →

The 2024 OFC U-16 Men's Championship was the 21st edition of the OFC U-16/U-17 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the men's under-16/under-17 national teams of Oceania. The final tournament was played in Pirae, Tahiti, from 28 July to 10 August 2024.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2007 are eligible to compete in the tournament.

The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the OFC representatives.^[2][3] New Zealand successfully defended the title from 2023.

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered the tournament.

In 2022 and 2023, male youth OFC tournaments did not have a four-team qualifying stage, and all teams competed in one tournament.^[4] This was reversed for the 2024 tournament.^[5]

Note: All appearance statistics include those in the qualifying stage (2016 and 2018).

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
American Samoa	10th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2023)
Cook Islands	11th	Quarter-finals (2023)
Fiji	19th	Runners-up (1999)
New Caledonia	13th	Runners-up (2003, 2013, 2017, 2023)
New Zealand	18th	Champions (1997, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2023)
Papua New Guinea	10th	Semi-finals (2017), Fourth place (1986)
Samoa	10th	Quarter-finals (2023)
Solomon Islands	10th	Runners-up (1993, 2018)
Tahiti (hosts)	15th	Runners-up (2007, 2009, 2011, 2015)
Tonga	11th	Quarter-finals (2023)
Vanuatu	16th	Runners-up (2005)

Pirae
Pirae
Stade Pater	Stade Fautaua
Capacity: 11,700	Capacity: 5,000

The draw for the group stage was held on 5 March with teams seeded into pots based upon their ranking at the 2023 OFC U-17 Championship.^[5][6]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
New Caledonia  New Zealand	Fiji  Samoa  Tahiti  Vanuatu	Cook Islands  Solomon Islands[a]

The draw for the group stage was held 5 March 2024.^[5]

Tie-breaking criteria for group play[7]
The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows: Total points; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Head-to-head result between tied teams; Points in matches among the tied teams; Goal difference in matches among the tied teams; Goals scored in matches among the tied teams; Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction per player, per match): One yellow card: −1 point; Two yellow cards (indirect red card): −3 points; Direct red card: −4 points; Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points; Drawing of lots.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Solomon Islands	3	3	0	0	29	0	+29	9	Final tournament
2	Tonga (H)	3	2	0	1	10	9	+1	6
3	Papua New Guinea	3	1	0	2	3	22	−19	3
4	American Samoa	3	0	0	3	1	12	−11	0

All times are local, TAHT (UTC-10).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	3	3	0	0	23	1	+22	9	Knockout stage
2	Fiji	3	2	0	1	6	10	−4	6
3	Cook Islands	3	1	0	2	4	10	−6	3	5th place match
4	Vanuatu	3	0	0	3	3	15	−12	0	7th place match

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tahiti (H)	3	3	0	0	6	3	+3	9	Knockout stage
2	New Caledonia	3	1	0	2	7	6	+1	3
3	Samoa	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3	5th place match
4	Solomon Islands	3	1	0	2	6	9	−3	3	7th place match

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	Semi-finals				Final
	7 August – Pirae
	New Zealand	5
					10 August – Pirae
	New Caledonia	0
					New Zealand	3
	7 August – Pirae
					Fiji	1
	Tahiti	1
	Fiji	2
					Third place match
					10 August – Pirae
					New Caledonia (pen.)	1 (5)
					Tahiti	1 (4)

Winners qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Winner qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

All games will be streamed live and free on FIFA+.^[6]

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.^[26]

Award	Player
Golden Ball	Aaron Cartwright
Golden Boot	Aaron Cartwright
Golden Gloves	Nicolas Kutran
Fair Play	Tahiti

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The following three teams from OFC qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup1
New Zealand	7 August 2024	10 (1997, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023)
Fiji	7 August 2024	0 (debut)
New Caledonia	10 August 2024	2 (2017, 2023)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.