By Andrew Warshaw
March 4 – Almost a year after resigning as head of the Oceania Football Confederation citing “personal reasons”, David Chung has been banned from the sport for 6.5 years for financial wrongdoing, reportedly over the awarding of contracts for the construction of the OFC headquarters in New Zealand.
By Samindra Kunti
February 26 – New Zealand have expressed their interest in hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Last week FIFA launched the bidding process with Japan, Australia and South Africa among the other member associations that have declared an interest so far.
October 16 – New Zealand FA president Deryck Shaw has resigned in the wake of a damaging bullying scandal that has rocked the women’s game.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 9 – Oceania football chief David Chung, who abruptly resigned last week, did so after an audit of his confederation found “potential irregularities” on a $20 million building project and funding was cut to the region by FIFA, it has been revealed.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
April 6 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and one of FIFA’s highest ranking officials, has resigned after seven years in the job. A short statement from the OFC said Chung, FIFA’s senior vice-president and an important ally in Gianni Infantino’s 2016 presidential election victory, took the decision “after much deliberation, citing personal reasons.”
November 8 – The New Zealand Professional Footballers Association has become one of the first national governing bodies to publicly state it is looking to achieve a single collective agreement with its players, providing equal conditions for men and women.
October 25 – FIFA is not the only football body to face problems with a flooded pitch. But in India FIFA could switch venue and city for its U17 World Cup semi-final between Brazil and England. In Kiribati they don’t have that luxury.
By Paul Nicholson
September 7 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation and the second highest official at FIFA as senior vice president, is under increasing pressure from football stakeholders in his home country Papua New Guinea, where a breakaway group of top clubs is running its own league and development programmes already with greater numbers and participation than Chung’s FIFA-backed organisation.
By Paul Nicholson
May 21 – Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) president David Chung has responded to accusations that he rigged his re-election to the Papua New Guinea FA presidency via a statement saying that the election was held according to the statutes. He also refutes allegations that he used FIFA funds to incentivise votes for his candidacy.
By Paul Nicholson
May 19 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation as well as the Papua New Guinea FA, is facing a revolution in his home country where a rival faction has established its own federation, is playing its own matches and has more members than the FIFA-recognised federation Chung leads.
April 20 – New Zealand club side Wellington Phoenix have signed what they claim is the largest sponsorship deal in New Zealand football history with China’s Huawei. The deal is estimated to be worth $2 million a season, though no official figure was given.
August 25 – The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has adjourned an appeal by New Zealand over their under-23 men’s team’s expulsion from the Olympic qualifying tournament final last month in Papua New Guinea.
By David Owen
July 8 – Football is generally a low-scoring game, but it is not invariably so. Arbroath 36 Bon Accord 0 in September 1885 in the Scottish Cup is one well-known counter-example that springs to mind. Australia 31 American Samoa 0 in April 2001 in a World Cup qualifier is another.
April 14 – Australia has given a lukewarm response to the idea of co-hosting the World Cup with New Zealand. Oceania is the only Continent still to stage the tournament and the Kiwis are apparently eyeing up the possibility of sharing the tournament with their neighbour.
January 7 – Oceania Football Confederation President David Chung says obtaining direct entry into the World Cup instead of his region being forced every time into an intercontinental playoff will be a major priority after he was re-elected unopposed to run FIFA’s smallest regional bloc, in terms of footballing stature at least.