2016 OFC U-20 Championship


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 for players aged 19 and below. This year, the tournament was held in Vanuatu for the first time by itself.
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.
In March 2015, FIFA decided that the OFC gets two slots at every FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cup. So the top two teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.

Format

The qualification structure is as follows:
All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered qualification.
SeedingTeamsNo. of teams
First round entrants
4
Second round entrants
7

Squads

Venues

First round

The preliminary tournament was hosted by Tonga between 21 and 27 June 2016. The winner qualified for the final tournament.
Four referees and four assistant referees were named for the preliminary round of the tournament.
Referees
Assistant referees
All times are local, TOT.
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Second round

The final tournament was scheduled for 3–17 September 2016. Vanuatu were announced as the host in December 2015.
The draw was held on 22 June 2016. 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.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
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Final

Goalscorers

;5 goals
;4 goals
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
The 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.
AwardRecipient
Golden Ball Myer Bevan
Golden Glove Michael Woud
Golden Boot Myer Bevan
Fair Play Award Solomon Islands

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following two teams from OFC qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
TeamQualified onPrevious appearances in tournament[|1]