Friday the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) U19 Women’s Championship 2019 hosted here in the Cook Islands will get underway.
The tournament will run from the 30th of August till the 12th of September at the CIFA Complex in Matavera and consists of 11 pacific nations who will contest for a spot in next year’s FIFA U20 Womens world cup.
The championship will record a major milestone for women’s football in the region with all 11 OFC nations registered to compete for the first time in OFC history.
Drawn into Group A, hosts the Cook Islands will face Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu. In Group B defending champions and hot favourites New Zealand will compete against American Samoa, Samoa and Tahiti and Group C will consist of Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Tonga.
Kicking of the tournament on Friday at 10am will be Group C’s Papua New Guinea who will play New Caledonia. At 1pm in the afternoon the second match of the day will kick off between Group A’s Solomon Islands and Fiji, while the Vanuatu and Cook Islands play each other in the final match of the day at 4pm.
Group B’s matches will be played on Saturday with New Zealand and Samoa kicking off at 1pm followed by Tahiti and American Samoa who will face off at 4pm.
The winner of group A will play the winner of group B while the runner up of group B will play the winner of group C in the semifinals which will be played on Monday 9 September.
The entry fee to the games is $3, those under 13 years old are free entry.
