00:05While 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.
00:27When 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 the club sides would fare against the world's
00:45best.
00:48Qualification 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
01:14appearing in the second most matches in the competition's history.
01:22Unsurprisingly, for a side that is only semi-professional, wins have been hard to come by.
01:30In 2009, they won twice, finishing in fifth place.
01:35Then, in 2014, they won once in normal time and twice after penalty shootouts to finish a Confederation best third.
01:45It's unbelievable.
01:46I mean, obviously, the club, everyone at the club, I suppose, and in New Zealand must be buzzing now because,
01:51you know, when you look at the, we're going to get a bronze medal and a football championship team from
01:57New Zealand, that's unbelievable.
01:59Probably no one here or in Morocco, you know, ever expected that to happen, you know, and it's happened.
02:07Auckland City's dominance has prevented many other clubs in the region from rubbing shoulders with the likes of Real Madrid
02:13and Boca Juniors.
02:15And when they have missed out, another team from New Zealand has often filled the void, be it Waitakere United
02:23or Team Wellington.
02:26There is a difference when you're talking about the professional players, you know, many of our, or all of our
02:34players, you know, they're not professional, they have other jobs, they have other lives.
02:41And, you know, but at the, but at the same time, including Justin here, who, you know, we've, we've got
02:47a lot of players that, you know, have represented New Zealand, have been at FIFA competitions before.
02:53I touched on, you know, the only campaign as well, playing in front of, you know, big crowds and very,
03:00very difficult conditions and environments.
03:04And 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.
03:20Heingeni sport of New Caledonia.
03:23The first team to break the duopoly was Hekari United of Papua New Guinea in 2010.
03:31A third team, AS Pire of Tahiti, appeared at the 2021 edition after Auckland City pulled out due to the
03:40COVID-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
04:00toe 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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