Football at the Pacific Games

Football at the Pacific Games
Founded1963
Current champions New Caledonia
 Men (2023)
 Papua New Guinea
 Women (2023)
Most successful team(s) New Caledonia
 Men (8 titles)
 Papua New Guinea
 Women (6 titles)
Football at the 2023 Pacific Games
Men's  · Women's

Association football has been regularly included in the Pacific Games, the multi-sports event for Pacific nations, territories and dependencies, since 1963. Until 2011 the competition was known as the South Pacific Games.[1]

Since 1971 the men's tournament has been held every four years, but was not played in 1999 due to contractual issues. In 2007, the men's competition doubled as the Oceania Football Confederation's preliminary qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[2] The men's tournament also became the Olympic qualifier for Oceania for the 2015 edition.

The women's tournament was introduced in 2003, and has doubled up as the preliminary qualifying competition for the Olympic Games since 2007. Football was a compulsory inclusion at the Pacific Games for men's teams for many years but was made a core sport for both men's and women's teams in 2017.[3] Football has also been held at several editions of the Pacific Mini Games, starting with the first tournament in 1981.[4]

  1. ^ "Pacific Games". RSSSF.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ofc-2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference charter-2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference overview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).