Six teams to contest OFC U19 Women's Champs

Six teams will contest the OFC Under 19 Women's Football Championship in Auckland in July.

Defending champions New Zealand will be joined by Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Samoa as they each bid for the 2017 title and a place in next year's FIFA Under 20 Women's World Cup in France.

OFC Competitions Director Chris Kemp said they were looking forward to hosting an exciting competition.

"We had some mixed results at the previous edition of the then OFC U-20 Women's Championship two years ago and since then a lot of development has gone into the women's game," he said.

"Both New Zealand and Papua New Guinea performed outstandingly at the U-20 Women's World Cup last year which is likely to have inspired a few of these competing nations, and I know the preparations for many of them are well underway."

New Zealand and Papua New Guinea represented Oceania at last year's World Cup in Port Moresby, with Nicolette Ageva scoring a historic goal for the home side in their final pool match, a 7-1 defeat against eventual winners North Korea.

However, only one slot is available for Oceania this time around, with PNG having qualified automatically as the host nation for last year's tournament.

 

Photo OFC