2002 OFC Nations Cup qualification

Qualified teams
Team Appearance Streak Previous appearance
 Australia 5th52000
 Fiji 4th11998
 New Caledonia 3rd11980
 New Zealand 6th62000
 Solomon Islands 4th22000
 Papua New Guinea 2nd11980
 Tahiti 6th62000
 Vanuatu 5th(1)22000
1Includes two pre-independence appearances as the New Hebrides

Qualification Procedure

With the end of the Polynesian and Melanesian Cups between the 2000 and 2002 tournaments, (the two competitions formerly served a secondary function as qualifiers for the Oceania Nations Cup), a new format was created to decide the teams which would be accepted for the Nations Cup. Retaining their round-robin group qualifier style, the OFC this time chose to adopt the FIFA rankings to order all the entrants. With New Caledonia not yet a FIFA member, they were placed last by default. The lowest six teams were then made to compete for two places via a round-robin group stage, with the highest-placed two teams qualifying for the Oceania Nations Cup.

The Rankings of all the teams involved in the OFC Nations Cup are below. The positions were taken as of October, 2001, with the eleven ranked teams appearing in the following order:

RankTeamPoints by Oct 2001
48 Australia586
84 New Zealand477
123 Fiji349
128 Tahiti336
134 Solomon Islands309
168 Vanuatu182
172 Samoa158
175 Tonga151
176 Cook Islands147
195 Papua New Guinea56
201 American Samoa16

Qualifying Tournament

Before the first group stage began, the  Cook Islands withdrew, resulting in the group stage being played between only five nations.

Results
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Papua New Guinea (H) 4 4 0 0 20 2 +18 12 Advance to 2002 OFC Nations Cup
2  New Caledonia 4 3 0 1 25 4 +21 9
3  Samoa 4 2 0 2 8 9 −1 6
4  Tonga 4 1 0 3 7 18 −11 3
5  American Samoa 4 0 0 4 2 29 −27 0
6  Cook Islands 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Withdraw
Source:
(H) Host.

Match Schedule
New Caledonia 10–0 American Samoa
Case  10'
Pibke  11', 40', 54', 58', 70'
Jose  25'
Kauma  36'
Wanakaija  55'
Voudjo  74'		 (Report)
Samoa 2–0 Tonga
Timo  52'
Lemana  83'		 (Report)
Tonga 7–2 American Samoa
Suli  3', 72', 80'
Maamaloa  5'
Taufahema  19'
Uele  29'
Fifita  39'		 (Report) Atualevao  15'
Afu  70'
Papua New Guinea 4–1 New Caledonia
Kombi  31'
Tomda  57'
Aisa  70'
Davani  85'		 (Report) Voudjo  40'
Papua New Guinea 5–0 Tonga
Lohai  19'
Moiyap  61'
Davani  70'
Aisa  84'
Andrew Kassam  89'		 (Report)
Samoa 5–0 American Samoa
Timo  3'
Faaiuaso  24', 68'
Lemana  31'
Fasavalu  48'		 (Report)
New Caledonia 9–0 Tonga
Faye  17', 85'
Pibke  18', 26', 85'
Voudjo  18'
Kabeu  45'
Kauma  74'
Jose  90'		 (Report)
Samoa 1–4 Papua New Guinea
Lemana  56' (Report) Kombi  20'
Wasi  30'
Elizah  60'
Moiyap  76'
Papua New Guinea 7–0 American Samoa
Davani  12', 20', 43'
Posman  32'
Aisa  46'
Lohai  61'
Wasi  90+'		 (Report)
Samoa 0–5 New Caledonia
(Report) Kauma  10'
David Hay  41', 69'
Pibke  59'
Mapou  89'

 Papua New Guinea and  New Caledonia progress to the second group stage.

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