The National Leagues of Oceania: A Guide

Do you wonder how the national leagues around Oceania are set up? Football In Oceania gives you a guide to all of them.

The football in Oceania is far away from the glory of Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and the other big leagues in Europe that most of us know. Most of the club teams in Oceania are amateur or semi-professional and some leagues use one stadium for all the league fixtures.

AMERICAN SAMOA
FFAS National League
Reigning champions: 2018: Pago Youth

The American Samoa league consists of twelve teams that play each other once before the league splits. The top four teams then contend in a Top 4 Group while the middle four play a Middle 4 Tournament. The teams all start level again at zero points and they play the other four teams once in a league system to determine the winner.

OFC Champions League:
The winner of the initial league gets a spot in the OFC Champions League Qualifying Group two seasons from the one they win. In other words, the winner the 2017 regular season will enter the 2019 OFC Champions League and not the 2018 edition.

COOK ISLANDS
Van’s Premier Men’s Round Cup
Reigning champions: 2018: Tupapa Maraerenga

The Round Cup has a normal league format where the seven teams in the league play each other twice.

OFC Champions League:
The winner gets a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Qualifying Group.

FIJI
Vodafone Premier League
Reigning champions: 2018: Lautoka

The VPL has a normal league format with eight teams playing each other twice. The bottom team is relegated.

OFC Champions League:
The winner and runner-up get a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Group Stage.

NEW CALEDONIA
Super Ligue
Reigning champions: 2018: AS Magenta

The New Caledonian league is set up as a normal league format with the 13 teams playing each other twice for a total of 24 league games. The points system is a little different from others, you get 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw and 1 point for a loss. The bottom three teams are relegated. As most of the teams are from the Grande Terre island of New Caledonia, the largest one, there is a special rule in place for the teams on the other islands who compete in the second tier “Ligue des Illes”. There are two teams from the other Islands in the Super Ligue and every year the last placed of the two teams get relegated if they finish 8th or lower and have to play a play-off against the winner of the Ligue des Illes if they finish 7th or higher.

OFC Champions League:
The winner and the runner-up of the Super Ligue gets a spot in the OFC Champions League Group Stage two seasons from the one they win. In other words, the winner and runner-up of the 2017 championship will enter the 2019 OFC Champions League and not the 2018 edition.

NEW ZEALAND
ISPS Handa Premiership
Reigning champions: 2017/18: Auckland City

The biggest league on the continent is divided into two parts. The first phase is a league format with ten teams playing each other twice. The top four teams then go on to play in the Final Series with the semi-finals and final being one-match knockout games.

OFC Champions League:
The winner of the regular season and the winner of the Grand Final gets a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Group Stage. If the winner of the Grand Final and the regular season is the same the team that came second in the regular season gets the O-League spot.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Telkom National Soccer League
Reigning champions: 2018: Toti City Dwellers (Formerly Lae)

The NSL has a brand new look for 2019. A record-high 27 teams take part, split into four conferences divided by zones. The Northern, Southern, Highland and New Guinea Islands (NGI for short) conferences have between five and eight teams in them where the top two from each go through to a knockout round. The Highland and Northern top two will play each other home and away, as will the top two Southern and NGI teams.

The four remaining teams then go into a final group where the top team after those matches will be crowned champion.

OFC Champions League:
The winner and runner-up of the National Soccer League Final Group get a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League.

SAMOA
Upolu Premier League
Reigning champions: 2018: Kiwi FC

The Samoan league has a standard league format with 12 teams playing each other once. The bottom two teams have to play in a relegation playoff with the top two teams from the division below, each team play each other once in a mini-league and the top two teams will compete in the next year’s Premier League while the other two go down.

OFC Champions League:
The winner gets a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Qualification Group.

SOLOMON ISLANDS
Telekom S-League
Reigning champions: 2018: Solomon Warriors

The S-League has a standard league format with nine teams playing each other twice for 16 games in total. No teams are relegated.

OFC Champions League:
The winner and runner-up gets a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Group Stage.

TAHITI
Ligue 1 Vini
Reigning champions: 2017/18: AS Central Sport

The league system in Tahiti is divided in two, first a regular league with a normal league format where 10 teams play each other three times for a total of 27 games. The points system is a little different from others, you get 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw and 1 point for a loss.

OFC Champions League:
The winner and runner-up in the Championship Final gets a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Group Stage.

TONGA
Major League
Reigning champions: 2018: Lotoha’apai United

There is not a whole lot of information on the Tonga Major League but it seems to end in a final after a league has been played. In 2017 Veitongo retained the title beating Ha’amoko 3-0 in the final

OFC Champions League:
The winner gets a spot in next year’s OFC Champions League Qualification Group.

VANUATU
Port Vila TVL Premier League
VFF National Super League
Reigning champions:
PV PL: 2017/18: Erakor Golden Star
VFF NSL: 2018: Malampa Revivors

There are two main leagues in Vanuatu. The National Super League hosted by the Vanuatu Football Federation (VFF) and the TVL Premier League hosted by the Port Vila Football Association (PVFA). The PVFA is considered the best and largest FA in the country and has since 2016 hosted their own competition in the Premier League. All teams in the PVFA leagues are based in the capital Port Vila. The Port Vila TVL Premier League is made out of 9 teams where they play each other twice for 16 games. The bottom two are relegated while the third from bottom will play a relegation play-off. The top four teams enter the PVFA Top Four Super League where the teams start at zero points and play each other once in a league system.

The other league in the country, the VFF National Super League is made up of the rest of the associations in Vanuatu and consists of three groups where two groups have five teams and the last group has four teams. The teams play each other once and the top two from each group goes through to the Final Round where the six teams play each other once in a league to determine the winner of the National Super League.

OFC Champions League:
The winner off the VFF National Super League gets a spot in the OFC Champions League Group Stage two seasons from the one they win. In other words, the winner of the 2016 VFF NSL championship, will enter the 2018 OFC Champions League and not the 2017 edition. The winner of the PVFA Top Four Super League qualifies for next year’s OFC Champions League Group Stage.

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