Football at the Pacific Games

Football at the Pacific Games

Gegründet	1963
Current champions	Neukaledonien Men (2023) Papua-Neuguinea Women (2023)
Most successful team(s)	Neukaledonien Men (8 titles) Papua-Neuguinea 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.

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. 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. Football has also been held at several editions of the Pacific Mini Games, starting with the first tournament in 1981.

Men's tournament

The Tuvalu men's team at the 2007 South Pacific Games

Participating nations

Numbers refer to the final placing of each team at the respective Games. Host nation is shown in bold.– See also the §Key to symbols within this section below the two tables.

	Games Nation		63	66	69	71	75	79	83	87	91	95	99	03	07	11	15	19	23	Years played
Amerikanisch-Samoa			-	-	-	-	-	-	P	6	-	-	-	-	P	P	-	P	12	6
Cook Inseln			-	-	-	6	-	-	-	-	-	P	-	-	P	P	-	-	8	5
Fidschi			2	-	4	5	4	2	2	-	1	3	-	1	2	4	4	3	3	14
Guam			-	-	-	-	P	6	-	-	P	P	-	-	-	P	-	-	-	5
Kiribati			-	-	-	-	-	9*	-	-	-	-	-	P	-	P	-	-	†	3
Micronesia (F.S.)			-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	P	-	-	P	-	-	2
Neukaledonien			1	2	1	1	2	4	3	1	3	P	-	2	1	1	1	2	1	16
New Zealand U-23			-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	‡	1	-	2
Niue			-	-	-	-	-	-	P	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Northern Marianas			-	-	-	-	-	-	†	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	1
Papua-Neuguinea			P	4	3	4	P	9*	4	3	P	P	-	P	-	P	3	4	6	15
Samoa			-	-	-	-	-	9*	5*	-	-	-	-	-	P	-	-	P	7	5
Salomonen			4	P	6	-	3	3	P	-	2	2	-	P	4	2	P	P	2	14
Tahiti			3	1	2	3	1	1	1	2	P	1	-	4	P	3	2	P	5	16
Tonga			-	-	-	-	-	7*	P	-	-	-	-	P	P	-	-	P	11	6
Tuvalu			-	-	-	-	-	7*	-	-	-	-	-	P	P	P	-	P	9	6
Vanuatu			P	3	5	2	P	5	P	4	4	4	-	3	3	P	P	P	4	16
Wallis und Futuna			-	P	-	-	-	9*	5*	5	P	P	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6
Number of teams All-time total: 18			6	6	6	6	7	12	11	6	8	9	-	10	10	11	8#	11	12	16 Editions

Legend

Key to symbols
1	Gold medal for first place	n	nth place (e.g. 5 is fifth place)
2	Silver medal for second place	P	Pool or group stage elimination
3	Bronze medal for third place	*	Asterisk for shared placing (e.g. 5* is equal fifth)
4	Fourth place	#	Contested by under-23 national teams only
-	Did not play	†	Withdrew before competition (did not play)
‡	Played in the tournament (FIFA qualification) but excluded from the Pacific Games placings

Results

The table below is a summary of the finals matches in men's football at the Pacific Games since 1963: 

Year	Host city			Final			Third place match
			Gold	Score	Silver		Bronze	Score	Fourth place
1963	Suva		Neukaledonien	8–2	Fidschi		Tahiti	7–2	Salomonen
1966	Nouméa		Tahiti	2–0	Neukaledonien		New Hebrides	5–2	Papua New Guinea
1969	Port Moresby		Neukaledonien	2–1	Tahiti		Papua New Guinea	2–1	Fidschi
1971	Papeete		Neukaledonien	7–1	New Hebrides		Tahiti	8–1	Papua New Guinea
1975	Tumon		Tahiti	2–1	Neukaledonien		Salomonen	3–2	Fidschi
1979	Suva		Tahiti	3–0	Fidschi		Salomonen	3–1	Neukaledonien
1983	Apia		Tahiti	1–0	Fidschi		Neukaledonien	2–1	Papua New Guinea
1987	Nouméa		Neukaledonien	1–0	Tahiti		Papua New Guinea	3–1	Vanuatu
1991	Port Moresby		Fidschi	1–1 (5–4 .pen.)	Salomonen		Neukaledonien	3–1	Vanuatu
1995	Papeete		Tahiti	2–0	Salomonen		Fidschi	3–0	Vanuatu
1999	No football tournament in 1999
2003	Suva	Fidschi	2–0	Neukaledonien	Vanuatu	1–0	Tahiti
2007	Apia	Neukaledonien	1–0	Fidschi	Vanuatu	2–0	Salomonen
2011	Nouméa	Neukaledonien	2–0	Salomonen	Tahiti	2–1	Fidschi
2015	Port Moresby	Neukaledonien	2–0	Tahiti	Papua New Guinea	2–1	Fidschi
2019	Apia	New Zealand U-23	2–1	Neukaledonien	Fidschi	1–1 (4–2 .pen.)	Papua-Neuguinea
2023	Honiara	Neukaledonien	2–2 (7–6 .pen.)	Salomonen	Fidschi	4–2	Vanuatu

Performances by countries

Below are the 7 nations that have reached at least the semi-final stage in the Pacific Games.

Team	Winner	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
Neukaledonien	8 ('63, '69, '71, '87, '07, '11, '15, '23)	4 ('66, '75, '03, '19)	2 ('83, '91)	1 ('79)
Tahiti (French Polynesia)	5 ('66, '75, '79, '83, '95)	3 ('69, '87, '15)	3 ('63, '71, '11)	1 ('03)
Fidschi	2 ('91, '03)	4 ('63, '79, '83, '07)	3 ('95, '19, '23)	4 ('69, '75, '11, '15)
New Zealand U-23	1 ('19)
Salomonen		4 ('91, '95, '11, '23)	2 ('75, '79)	2 ('63, '07)
Vanuatu (New Hebrides)		1 ('71)	3 ('66, '03, '07)	4 ('87, '91, '95, '23)
Papua-Neuguinea			3 ('69, '87, '15)	4 ('66, '71, '83, '19)

Golden boot awardees

Year	Player	Goals
1963–1995	Unknown	-
2003	Esala Masi	11
2007	Osea Vakatalesau	10
2011	Bertrand Kaï	10
2015	Jean Kaltack	17
2019	Gagame Feni Tony Kaltak Jean-Philippe Saïko	9

Women's tournament

Participating nations

	Games Nation		03	07	11	15	19	23	Years played
Amerikanisch-Samoa			-	P	P	-	P	9	4
Cook Inseln			-	P	P	3	4	10	5
Fidschi			5	3	3	P	3	2	6
Guam			2	-	P	-	-	-	2
Kiribati			7	-	-	-	-	-	1
Neukaledonien			-	P	2	2	P	3	5
Papua-Neuguinea			1	1	1	1	1	1	6
Samoa			-	P	-	4	2	4	4
Salomonen			-	P	P	P	P	6	5
Tahiti			4	4	P	-	P	8	5
Tonga			3	2	4	P	P	7	6
Vanuatu			6	-	-	-	P	5	3
Number of teams All-time total: 12			7	9	9	7	10	10	6 Editions

Results

The table below is a summary of the finals matches in the women's football competition at the Pacific Games since 2003.

Papua New Guinea won the first four tournament finals, including against hosts New Caledonia in 2011  and as hosts against New Caledonia in 2015.

Year	Host city		Final		Third place match
		Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
2003	Suva	Papua New Guinea	round-​robin	Guam	Tonga	round-​robin	Tahiti
2007	Apia	Papua New Guinea	3–1	Tonga	Fidschi	1–0	Tahiti
2011	Nouméa	Papua New Guinea	2–1	Neukaledonien	Fidschi	1–0	Tonga
2015	Port Moresby	Papua New Guinea	1–0	Neukaledonien	Cook Inseln	2–0	Samoa
2019	Apia	Papua New Guinea	3–1	Samoa	Fidschi	3–1	Cook Inseln
2023	Honiara	Papua New Guinea	4–1	Fidschi	Neukaledonien	3–1	Samoa

Performances by countries

Team	Winner	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
Papua-Neuguinea	6 ('03, '07, '11, '15, '19, '23)
Neukaledonien		2 ('11, '15)	1 ('23)
Fidschi		1 ('23)	3 ('07, '11, '19)
Tonga		1 ('07)	1 ('03)	1 ('11)
Samoa		1 ('19)		1 ('15, '23)
Guam		1 ('03)
Cook Inseln			1 ('15)	1 ('19)
Tahiti				2 ('03, '07)

Golden boot awardees

Year	Player	Goals
2003	Unknown	-
2007	Penateti Feke	4
2011	Christelle Wahnawe	12
2015	Christelle Wahnawe	10
2019	Ramona Padio	9
2023		11

All-time medal table

• Total medals won (men's and women's)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Neukaledonien	7	6	2	15
2	Französisch-Polynesien	5	3	3	11
3	Papua-Neuguinea	5	0	3	8
4	Fidschi	2	4	5	11
5	Neuseeland	1	0	0	1
6	Salomonen	0	3	2	5
7	Vanuatu (includes New Hebrides)	0	1	3	4
8	Tonga	0	1	1	2
9	Guam	0	1	0	1
	Samoa (includes Western Samoa)	0	1	0	1
11	Cook Inseln	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		20	20	20	60

Pacific Mini Games

Men

The table below is a summary of the medal matches played in the men's competition at the Pacific Mini Games:

Year	Host city		Final		Third place match
		Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
1981	Honiara	Tahiti	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Neukaledonien	Papua-Neuguinea	1–0	Vanuatu
1993	Port Vila	Tahiti	3–0	Fidschi	Neukaledonien	2–1	Vanuatu
2017	Port Vila	Vanuatu	round-​robin	Fidschi	Salomonen	round-​robin	Tuvalu

Women

As of 2019, women's football has only been hosted once at the Pacific Mini Games – at Vanuatu in 2017. The table below is a summary of the medal matches played in the women's competition:

Year	Host city		Final		Third place match
		Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
2017	Port Vila	Vanuatu	2–1	Fidschi	Tonga	1–0	Salomonen

External links

• OFC Official Website