2025 OFC U-16 Men's Championship

2025 OFC U-16 Men's Championship
Tournament details
Host countries	Qualifying stage:; Tonga; Final tournament:; Solomon Islands
Dates	Qualifying stage:; 3–9 May 2025; Final tournament:; 17–30 August 2025
Teams	Final tournament: 8; Total: 11 (from 1 confederation)
Venue	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (11th title)
Runners-up	New Caledonia
Third place	Fiji
Fourth place	Papua New Guinea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Goals scored	65 (3.61 per match)
Attendance	11,954 (664 per match)
Top scorer	Ben Perez Baldoni (6 goals)
Best player	Ethan Dyer
Best goalkeeper	Sylvain Ipeze
Fair play award	Samoa and Tahiti
	← 2024 2026 →

The 2025 OFC U-16 Men's Championship was the 22nd 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 Honiara, Solomon Islands, from 17 to 30 August 2025.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2009 are eligible to compete in the tournament.

The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the OFC representatives.^[2] New Zealand successfully defended the title from 2024.

Teams

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered the tournament, but only 8 played in the final tournament ^[a]

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

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
American Samoa	11th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2023)
Cook Islands	12th	Quarter-finals (2023)
Fiji	20th	Runners-up (1999, 2024)
New Caledonia	14th	Runners-up (2003, 2013, 2017, 2023)
New Zealand	19th	Champions (1997, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2023, 2024)
Papua New Guinea	11th	Semi-finals (2017), Fourth place (1986)
Samoa	11th	Quarter-finals (2023)
Solomon Islands (hosts)	11th	Runners-up (1993, 2018)
Tahiti	16th	Runners-up (2007, 2009, 2011, 2015)
Tonga	12th	Quarter-finals (2023)
Vanuatu	17th	Runners-up (2005)

Venues

Honiara
Honiara
Lawson Tama Stadium	National Stadium
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 10,000

Qualifying stage

The draw for the group stage was held 20 March 2025.^[3]

Tiebreakers

Tie-breaking criteria for group play ^{[citation needed]}
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.

Qualifying group

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Papua New Guinea	3	2	1	0	12	2	+10	7	Qualify for Final tournament	—	5–2	—	—
2	Tonga (H)	3	1	1	1	9	8	+1	4		—	—	2–2	5–1
3	Vanuatu	3	0	3	0	4	4	0	3		0–0	—	—	—
4	American Samoa	3	0	1	2	3	14	−11	1		0–7	—	2–2	—

Source: OFC
(H) Hosts

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 20 March with teams seeded into pots based upon their ranking at the 2024 OFC U-16 Men's Championship.^[4]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Fiji New Zealand	Cook Islands New Caledonia Samoa Tahiti	Solomon Islands Papua New Guinea^[b]

Group stage

All times are local, SBT (UTC+11).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Fiji	3	3	0	0	9	1	+8	9	Knockout stage
2	Papua New Guinea	3	1	1	1	7	4	+3	4	Knockout stage
3	Tahiti	3	1	0	2	7	8	−1	3	5th place match
4	Cook Islands	3	0	1	2	1	11	−10	1	7th place match

Source: OFC

17 August 2025

12:00

Cook Islands	1–1	Papua New Guinea
Rua 47'	Report	Millis 76'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 787

Referee: Timothy Niu (Solomon Islands)

17 August 2025

15:00

Fiji	2–1	Tahiti
Chand 20' Dau 70'	Report	Morgant 60' (pen.)

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 1132

Referee: Calvin Berg (New Zealand)

20 August 2025

12:00

Papua New Guinea	6–1	Tahiti
Tehio 45+2' (o.g.) Yagum 46' Enoch 50' Tommy 67', 74' (pen.), 90'	Report	Vauquelin 10'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 148

Referee: Cory Mills (New Zealand)

20 August 2025

15:00

Fiji	5–0	Cook Islands
Muatini 4', 45+1' Dau 36' (pen.) Archari 45+5', 70'	Report

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 233

Referee: Jarethy George (Vanuatu)

23 August 2024

12:00

Tahiti	5–0	Cook Islands
Scheel 19' (o.g.) Aroa. Bennett 21', 26' (pen.) Vauquelin 41' Aron. Bennett 71'	Report

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 83

Referee: Peter Olomaga (Samoa)

23 August 2024

15:00

Papua New Guinea	0–2	Fiji
	Report	Dau 27', 83' (pen.)

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 309

Referee: Calvin Berg (New Zealand)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	3	2	1	0	13	0	+13	7	Knockout stage
2	New Caledonia	3	2	1	0	10	2	+8	7	Knockout stage
3	Solomon Islands (H)	3	1	0	2	6	13	−7	3	5th place match
4	Samoa	3	0	0	3	0	14	−14	0	7th place match

Source: OFC
(H) Hosts

18 August 2025