Away from the attention of the European Championship and the America’s Cup, another championship is underway

The European Championships have begun and the Copa America is about to begin. But on the other side of the world, away from the public eye, another continental championship is taking place, whose matches are rarely even mentioned in the bulletins of bookmakers.

The Nations Cup, the official continental competition of Oceania Football, FIFA’s smallest confederation representing the national teams of the Oceania region, kicked off in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The event is in its 11th year, this time co-hosted by Vanuatu and Fiji. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 edition was cancelled and not held, so after an 8-year hiatus, the championship is finally taking place again, following the last edition in 2016, when the New Zealand team won. The largest number of trophies, with 5 wins.

Ten days before the tournament, the New Caledonian national team was cancelled due to the country’s great crisis and riots in the streets of the capital, Noumea. The indigenous people rose up against the French occupation and the laws imposed by Paris, which did not serve their interests but benefited the colonizers.

So, in the early hours of Saturday morning, Macedonia time, at the “Freshwater” Stadium in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, in front of 5,000 spectators, the home team defeated the Solomon Islands 1-0. New Zealand was originally scheduled to play on the same day, but due to the cancellation of New Caledonia, three participants remained in Group A this time.

This morning, in Group B, Tahiti beat Samoa 2:0, and then host Fiji beat Papua New Guinea 5:1.

If we look at the makeup of the national team, they are mostly unknown to us. It rarely has a recognisable name and can be counted on the fingers of just one hand.

One of them is probably well known to avid Serie A watchers. Left-back Liberato Kakashi made 31 appearances for New Zealand last season and currently plays for the New Zealand national team at Empoli. Although born in New Zealand, his parents are both Italian immigrants. He is definitely the most famous name at this year’s Nations Cup.

In the Solomon Islands, there is a player who played for the Bosnian club Velez Mostar at club level. We don’t know Rafael Ley, but after his return in September, the Bosnians must remember him, on the grounds that he missed his homeland very much. Ley appeared as a Velez player until the end of last season, although he could not play at all. This month his contract finally expired and he joined Adelaide City in Australia. For Velez, he made a total of 13 appearances, contributing 2 goals and 2 assists.

Striker Kia Cahill, son of Australian legend Tim Cahill, plays for the Samoa national team. He is 21 years old and was born in London when his father played for Millwall. Kia plays for Samoa because his father is Samoan.

Tahiti has a player from French Ligue 1 club Le Havre in right-back Mateo De Grummel, who only played for the club’s B team when he was 20 years old.

The national teams can register 23 players each, with the Solomon Islands and Tahiti having the most domestic league players, even with 21 players, or 19, with only 2 playing abroad. Interestingly, the Tahiti coach could have registered 23 players, but he took 21 players to win the championship.

The exact opposite is Samoa, which has only 5 players. The most players come from the New Zealand League – 28, the Solomon League has 22, followed by the Tahiti League (19), Fiji League (18), Vanuatu League (17), Papua New Guinea League (16). The most players from leagues outside the Oceania region come from the Australian League, with 15, and 5 players from the English League.