THE Oceania Football Confederation Womenís Olympic Football Tournament between Papua New Guinea and New Zealand has been changed from a home and away play-off to a single fixture to be played on Saturday, March 8, in Port Moresby.
The OFC media and communications said yesterday that the change was requested and agreed by mutual consent between the two associations and approved by FIFA together with OFC.
The winner of the match will progress to the Olympic Football Tournament in Beijing, China, in August this year.
The OFC said in a statement yesterday that the venue for the clash is the PRL Lloyd Robson Oval at Boroka at 2pm. The match officials will be confirmed later, it said.
The format for selecting Oceania’s women’s representative at the Olympic Games Women’s Football Tournament, has changed each year since Oceania first gained entry in 2000.
In 2000, Australia, as host nation of the 2000 Olympic Games, qualified. In 2004, a tournament was held in Fiji, featuring the host nation, Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Next year marks the first Olympic Qualifiers since Australia switched confederations from OFC to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Jan 1, 2006. The winner of the tournament will be awarded direct entry to Beijing 2008.
New Zealand will head into the fixtures as hot favourites but will face a PNG team who achieved its highest ever placing at an OFC/FIFA World Cup Qualifying event last year when it finished runners-up to New Zealand.