Fiji first-round soccer rival

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 27

Fiji first-round soccer rival

PA Wellington The New Zealand soccer team will have Fiji and Western Samoa as its first opponents in the Oceania qualifying competition for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The format of the competition was established at last week-end’s meeting of the Oceania Football Confederation in Taiwan, with Australia drawing Taiwan and Papua New Guinea in the other section. The first-round qualifying matches will be played next November, New Zealand will confront Fiji at home and away. However, the New Zealand Football Association’s chairman, Mr Charlie Dempsey, said yesterday it was likely Western Samoa would wish to play both its games against New Zealand in Auckland because of the city’s large Samoan community. It will be Western Samoa’s debut in Olympic qualifying competition. The winners of each

section will automatically qualify for the second round which will also involve Israel and the winner of a play-off between the runners-up of the sections. Some concern was expressed at the confederation meeting about Israel’s direct entry to the second round but that was felt to be a better alternative than a home-and-away series. The second round will be held in New Zealand and Australia in February-March 1988, on a round-robin basis. Each of the four teams will play each other twice, with six games being played in New Zealand and six in Australia in the space of a fortnight. “The procedure will be for there to be a doubleheader on each of three nights, say Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, in each country,” said Mr Dempsey. Mr Dempsey was reelected president of the. Oceania Confederation unopposed at the Taiwan meeting.