SOUTH PACIFIC GAMES 2011 - LATEST

The 14th edition of the South Pacific Games will be held in and around Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia from 27/08/11 to 09/09/11, and included in the itinerary will be both men's and women's tournaments.

The full list of competing countries has yet to be announced, but it is expected that the full compliment of OFC member countries (expecting New Zealand) will be competing, alongside Tuvalu and Kiribati. Tuvalu are associate members of the OFC, and competed in the previous edition of the South Pacific Games, which were held in Apia, Samoa, and which was won by New Caledonia. (This was the first time that the Games were considered to be the preliminary stage for the Oceania group for World Cup qualification.) As a result, New Caledonia, runners-up Fiji and third-placed Vanuatu all progressed to the final stages of the Oceania qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Cup.

It will be the same story this time round, with both finalists and the winner of the third-place match progressing to the 2014 World Cup qualifying tournament.

This will be Kiribati's third appearance at the South Pacific Games, having previously competed in the 1979 and 2003 editions and suffering some heavy defeats in the process; they lost 24:0 against Fiji on their début in the competition in 1979. The country's record in the competition is: played 7, lost 7. Kiribati have never played against another international side outside the South Pacific Games.

The list of OFC member countries which are expected to compete in the men's football tournament is as follows:

• American Samoa
• Cook Islands
• Fiji
• New Caledonia
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tahiti
• Tonga
• Vanuatu

The Northern Mariana Islands FA (NMIFA) also intended to participate in the football tournament, but decided to pull out when it was announced that the tournament would serve as the first stage in World Cup 2014 qualification for the Oceania region, and feared that participation would be problematic for their status within the EAFF. The NMIFA are a member of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF), an offshoot of the AFC.

It appears that the island group's nearest neighbour, Guam, are also considering taking part in the Games' football tournament, but their FA's possible application may well founder for much the same reasons as that of the NMIFA.

The fixture lists have yet to be announced, but the list of venues (to be found on the Games' website's English-language football page, the web address of which is to be found at the end of this blog) is expected to include the following:

• Stade Numa Daly, Nouméa
• Terrain de Football Boewa, Mont-Dore
• Terrain de football Yoshida, Koné
• Terrain de football PLGC, Nouméa
• Terrain de football Rivière Salée, Nouméa
• Terrain de football Hnase, Lifou

The 2015 South Pacific Games will be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The first edition was held in Fiji back in 1963, where New Caledonia won the inaugural football tournament by outclassing their hosts by 8 goals to 2.

New Caledonia and Tahiti have been the most successful participants in the history of the South Pacific Games, with 5 gold medal performances apiece. A women's tournament was held for the first time in 2003, with Papua New Guinea finishing top of the final group stage, ahead of Guam, and retained the trophy after defeating Tonga in the 2007 final.

WINNERS (MEN'S TOURNAMENT)

1963 New Caledonia
1966 French Polynesia (later Tahiti)
1969 New Caledonia
1971 New Caledonia
1975 Tahiti
1979 Tahiti
1983 Tahiti
1987 New Caledonia
1991 Fiji
1995 Tahiti
2003 Fiji
2007 New Caledonia

For more information on the South Pacific Games, please visit the following link (in English):

http://www.nc2011.nc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=231&lang=english

For Francophone readers of this blog, the link address is:

http://www.nc2011.nc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=231&lang=french


To find out more about the draw, please go to the following link:

http://patmcguinness.blogspot.com/2011/08/south-pacific-games-2011-draw-mens.html


To find out more about the fixture-list for the Men's tournament, please go to the following link:

http://patmcguinness.blogspot.com/2011/08/pacific-games-2011-fixture-list-mens.html

To find out more about the fixture-list for the Women's tournament, please go to the following link:

http://patmcguinness.blogspot.com/2011/08/pacific-games-2011-fixture-list-womens.html