| Tourney Name: | OFC U-20 Championship |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Size: | 150px |
| Country: | (preliminary stage) (final stage) |
| Dates: | |
| Num Teams: | 8 (final stage) 11 (total) |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 2 |
| Cities: | 2 |
| Count: | 6 |
| Matches: | 21 |
| Goals: | 67 |
| Top Scorer: |  Dwayne Tiputoa Myer Bevan |
| Player: | Myer Bevan |
| Goalkeeper: | Michael Woud |
| Prevseason: | 2014 |
| Nextseason: | 2018 |
The 2016 OFC U-20 Championship was the 21st edition of the OFC U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for players aged 19 and below (despite the name remaining as U-20 Championship). This year, the tournament was held in Vanuatu for the first time by itself (second time overall).
Despite the name remaining as U-20 Championship, the age limit was reduced by a year to 19 years of age. So players who wanted to participate in the tournament needed to be born on or after 1 January 1997. At an OFC Executive Committee meeting held at its Auckland headquarters in November 2013 the competition format was modified. The competition was brought forward a year and the age limit was lowered to 19 years of age. The changes were made in order to allow the winner of the competition plenty of time for preparation and player development for upcoming World Cups at Under 20 level.[1]
In March 2015, FIFA decided that the OFC gets two slots at every FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cup.[2] So the top two teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.
The qualification structure is as follows:[2]
All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered qualification.
| Seeding | Teams | No. of teams | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First round entrants | 4 | ||
| Second round entrants | 7 |
See main article: 2016 OFC U-20 Championship squads.
| Port Vila | Luganville | |
|---|---|---|
| Port Vila Municipal Stadium | Luganville Soccer City Stadium | |
| -17.7309°N 168.3155°W | -15.5081°N 167.1912°W | |
| Capacity:10,000 | Capacity:7,000 | |
The preliminary tournament was hosted by Tonga between 21 and 27 June 2016. The winner qualified for the tournament final.
Four referees and four assistant referees were named for the preliminary round of the tournament.
Referees
Salesh Chand
Joel Hoppken
Nelson Sogo Campbell-Kirk WaughAssistant referees
Ujwaal Mudliar Phul Singh Jeffery Solodia Isaac TrevisAll times are local, TOT (UTC+13).
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The tournament final was scheduled for 3–17 September 2016 (originally 19–26 September 2016).[3] Vanuatu were announced as the host in December 2015.[4]
The draw was held on 22 June 2016.[5] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Vanuatu were assigned to position A1 in the draw. The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.
All times are local, VUT (UTC+11).
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Winners qualified for 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
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Dwayne Tiputoa Myer Bevan Moses Dyer Lucas Imrie
Thomas Gope-Fenepej Kimiora Samuela Conroy Tiputoa Michael Wood Warren Houala Cyril Nypie Pothin Poma Albert Watrone Hunter Ashworth Reese Cox Clayton Lewis
Alu Awi Peter Dabinyaba Jr. Gabby YanumThe Golden Ball Award is awarded to the most outstanding player of the tournament. The Golden Glove Award is awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament. The Golden Boot Award is awarded to the top scorer of the tournament. The Fair Play Award is awarded to the team with the best disciplinary record at the tournament.
| Award | Recipient | |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Ball | Myer Bevan | |
| Golden Glove | Michael Woud | |
| Golden Boot | Myer Bevan | |
| Fair Play Award | Solomon Islands |
The following two teams from OFC qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.[6]
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in tournament1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (2007, 2011, 2013, 2015) | |||
| (Debut) |
1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.