Sports

Solomon Islands to host Oceania Nations Cup

March 28, 2012 1:02 am

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) have handed the hosting rights of the Oceania Nations Cup to the Solomon Islands.

This tournament also acts as a crucial 2014 World Cup qualifying stage and was one of two big football events stripped from Fiji recently.

OFC secretary general, Tai Nicholas who is understood to be unable to enter Fiji for risk of being hauled before the courts, has never issued an official reason for taking the events away from Fiji.

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His most recent comments to OFC’s decisions towards Fiji is there have been ‘a number of factors’, still unknown to the Fiji Football Association that contributed to Fiji being stripped of hosting rights.

The OFC Nations Cup will now be held in Honiara from June 1-12 with the winners qualifying for the 2013 Confederations Cup.

The current format of World Cup qualifying will see the four highest-placed teams from the Nations Cup go on to contest a round-robin, home-and-away play-off series.

The matches are expected to take place between September 7, 2012 and March 26, 2013 – in line with FIFA international windows.

The match schedule and playing squads for the 2012 OFC Nations Cup are yet to be released.