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2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
Tournament details
Dates 31 August 2015 – 10 October 2017
Teams 11 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played 25
Goals scored 69 (2.76 per match)
Attendance 43,705 (1,748 per match)
Top scorer(s) Papua New Guinea Raymond Gunemba (5 goals)
2014
2022
All statistics correct as of 15 November 2016.

The Oceanian section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Russia, for national teams which are members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). A total of 0.5 slots (i.e. 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament are available for OFC teams.

The 2016 edition of the OFC Nations Cup will once again double as the second round of the OFC qualifying competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup (similar to the 2012 OFC Nations Cup and the OFC qualifying competition for the 2014 FIFA World Cup). This means that once again, the team that wins the qualifying competition and advances to the intercontinental play-off may be different from the team that wins the OFC Nations Cup and represents the OFC at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The qualification structure is as follows:

The OFC have considered different proposals of the qualifying tournament. A previous proposal adopted by the OFC in October 2014 had the eight teams divided into two groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches in the second round, followed by the top two teams of each group advancing to the third round to play in a single group of home-and-away round-robin matches to decide the winner of the 2016 OFC Nations Cup which would both qualify to the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and advance to the inter-confederation play-offs. However, it was later reported in April 2015 that the OFC had reversed its decision, and the 2016 OFC Nations Cup will be played as a one-off tournament similar to the 2012 OFC Nations Cup.

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered qualification. The four lowest ranked teams (based on FIFA World Ranking and sporting reasons) entered the first round, while the other seven teams entered the second round.


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