00:04While access to the World Cup has been challenging for national teams in the Oceania Confederation,
00:11qualification for the Club World Cup for club sides in the region has been an annual treat.
00:19Back in 2000, it was Ange Postacoglu's first opportunity to strut his stuff on the international stage.
00:26When the future Tottenham and Celtic manager led South Melbourne into matches against Nakaksa, Vasco da Gama and Manchester United.
00:37The Australian team lost all three matches, setting the tone for how OFC club sides would fare against the world's
00:44best.
00:47Qualification for the Club World Cup has largely been earned by winning the OFC Champions League.
00:53This piece of silverware nearly always resides in New Zealand, and mostly in the trophy cabinet of Auckland City FC,
01:02who have won it a record 13 times.
01:07This has translated into the navy blues holding the record for the most visits to the Club World Cup, and
01:13appearing in the second most matches in the competition's history.
01:21Unsurprisingly, for a side that is only semi-professional, wins have been hard to come by.
01:29In 2009, they won twice, finishing in fifth place.
01:34Then, in 2014, they won once in normal time, and twice after penalty shootouts, to finish a Confederation best third.
01:44It's unbelievable.
01:45I mean, obviously, the club, everyone at the club, I suppose, in New Zealand must be buzzing now, because, you
01:51know, when you look at the, we're going to get a bronze medal and a football championship team from New
01:57Zealand, that's unbelievable.
01:58Probably no one here or in Morocco, you know, ever expected that to happen, and it's happened.
02:06Auckland City's dominance has prevented many other clubs in the region from rubbing shoulders with the likes of Real Madrid
02:12and Boca Juniors.
02:14And when they have missed out, another team from New Zealand has often filled the void, be it Waitakere United
02:22or Team Wellington.
02:25There is a difference when you're talking about the, you know, professional players.
02:31You know, many of our, or all of our players, you know, they're not professional, they have other jobs, they
02:38have other lives.
02:40And, you know, but at the same time, including Justin here, who, you know, we've got a lot of players
02:47that, you know, have represented New Zealand, have been at FIFA competitions before.
02:52I touched on, you know, the O-League campaign as well, playing in front of, you know, big crowds and
02:59very, very difficult conditions and environments.
03:03And those are all the experiences that we, that we draw on as a group.
03:08Team Wellington competed in 2018.
03:12The following year, the OFC sport went to just the second club from outside Australia or New Zealand.
03:19Heingini Sport of New Caledonia.
03:21The first team to break the duopoly was Hekari United of Papua New Guinea in 2010.
03:30A third team, A.S. Pire of Tahiti, appeared at the 2021 edition after Auckland City pulled out due to
03:39the COVID-19 pandemic.
03:44As the Club World Cup expands, teams from the OFC will now compete in a guaranteed three group matches every
03:51year.
03:52It will lead to some incongruous fixtures, as part-timers from remote specs in the Pacific Ocean go toe-to
04:00-toe with billionaires and icons.
04:02And it will guarantee visibility for the Oceania Football Confederation and its small band of hardy football nations.
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