Finally, we explore the reactions in Greenland after CONCACAF’s Congress unanimously denied their bid to join the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation; they thus are still unaligned with any FIFA regional Confederation.
AFC Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers
Group A
Jordan was originally chosen to host this group from June 23-July 5, as with the other seven groups (see last week’s column: The Week in Women's Football: Asian Cup qualifying; recruiting for national teams - TribalFootball.com), but the AFC initially moved it to Qatar because of the current conflict in the region between Iran and Israel. It was a tad ironic that Qatar—who hosted the 2022 Men’s World Cup Finals—was chosen to host an women’s Asian qualifier but does not have a women’s national team and, as a result, could not participate this year in the qualifiers.
Qatar needs to invest in women’s football as Saudi Arabia have done over the past few years. The AFC then moved group play back to Jordan after a ceasefire was set between the two nations, set for July 7-19. This group was expected to be quite open between Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Singapore and Bhutan (see our preview from last month: The Week in Women's Football: Loza Abera exclusive; Bhutan; Super League excitement - TribalFootball.com) and it certainly turned out that way in an exciting and fascinating group to follow.
Bhutan jumped to the top of the table with two early wins, 3-2 over Singapore on July 7 and then 2-1 over Lebanon on July 10. In the later game, Bhutanese midfielder Pema Tshering (29) of Thimphu City FC scored a brace, while Pilar Koury (30) scored Lebanon’s only goal with nine minutes left in the game. Koury grew up in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, Ontario and went to college at the University of Ottawa, where she is the school’s all-time leading scorer. She has been playing in France since 2016, with Albi, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne, Nantes and Strasbourg.
Iran won its first game on July 10 with a 4-0 win over Singapore. Lebanon lost to Jordan 4-0 in both teams’ opener on July 7. Maysa Jbarah (35), who was born in Kuwait and played for clubs in Jordan, UAE, Lebanon, France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, scored the first two goals of the latter match by the 20th minute. Jbarah leads her nation with 146 caps and 140 goals. She played for two years at Al Nassr in KSA, scoring 14 goals in 21 games, and then transferred to Neom in Saudi Arabia, the club which currently plays in Tabuk but is bound for the visionary, futuristic new city of Neom, which is being developed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Neom is also known as “The Line” and is designed to be a narrow 106 mile city, with 1.5 miles targeted to be completed by 2030. Neom will host a futuristic stadium for the 2034 men’s World Cup, according to Samindra Kunti in World Soccer in May, 2025. Neom is currently in the Saudi Women First Division (second tier).
On July 13, Iran defeated Bhutan 7-1, building a 4-1 halftime lead and scoring three more goals between the 81st and 85th minutes. In the other match, Jordan shutout Singapore 5-0, with Maysa Jbhara again scoring a brace, including the ultimate winning score in the ninth minute.
On July 16, possibly the biggest upset of the entire eight groups of AFC qualifiers this summer took place as Lebanon stunned Iran 3-1, with Christy Maalouf (19) scoring a hat-trick for their first points of the group. Maalouf joined Paris FC in France midway through the 2023-24 season and played for their Regional 1 Feminine (fourth division) team. For the 2024-25 season, she moved to Regional 1 Feminine side VGA Saint-Maur, who won the Coupe de Paris Ile-de-France, scoring in their 2-1 win over Sarcelles.
She previously played at home for Zouk Mosbeh and EFP, scoring over 50 goals for the latter across four seasons. For the national team, she has played at multiple youth levels and had 14 goals in 25 full internationals entering the tournament. Her hat-trick against Iran took her goals total to 17 and she is now the all-time international goal scorer for Lebanon. Iran was undefeated before the game but fell behind Jordan in the standings, who remained perfect with three wins from three games with a 3-0 win over Bhutan. Jordan’s Maysa Jbhara again got on the score sheet, this time in the fourth minute with the ultimate winner. Bhutan finished the group with a 2-0-2 record for six points (6 goals for and 13 against), which overall was a very promising start in their first ever major tournament qualifiers.
On July 19, Iran and Jordan played the last group match with an AFC Women’s Asian Cup Finals spot to be decided. Iran could still overcome Jordan with a win, which would offset Jordan’s goal differential advantage prior to the game (+12 vs. +8). If goal difference was the first tie-breaker as in the past, Iran would have needed to win by three clear goals. Iran won 2-1 to advance to the AFC Finals, and actually scored all three goals in the game.
Sara Didar (20) of Bam Khatoon FC opened the scoring two minutes into the second half, with her club teammate Negin Zandi (21) scoring in the 81st minute. Jordan had a chance for a tie—which would have sent them on with 10 points to Iran’s 7—after Iranian defender Fatemeh Amineh (28) of Shahridari Sirjan put the ball into her own net in the 88th minute from a long pass by Jordan. Interestingly, at the end of 2024, Jordan and Iran played two friendlies in Amman—drawing 0-0 on November 28 while Jordan edged Iran 2-1 on December 2. Team Melli used a number of younger players on that trip. Looking back, it was a very useful set of matches in their preparation for this crucial Group A match in July, again in Amman.
It has been a tremendous year for Iran, which qualified for the first FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup later this year in Philippines (see our column in May: The Week in Women's Football: A-League & WSL review; examining 2027 Brazil hosting cities - TribalFootball.com), for which they are one of the favorites, having won the Asian title twice. On the club side, Bam Khatton made it from the qualifying stage, through the group stage and into the final eight of the 2024-25 AFC Women’s Champions League competition—the first year of the expanded tournament, after four seasons of a limited Women’s Club Championship from 2019 through 2023—falling to Incheon Red Angels of Korea Republic 1-0 (see our column from earlier this year: The Week in Women's Football: Part 2 - Off-season ins/outs for NWSL; Linda Pizzuti Boston blow - TribalFootball.com). Iran will go to their second consecutive Asian Women’s Cup Finals.
Three years ago in India, they tied the hosts (0-0) but the result was later nullified when India withdrew because of a COVID outbreak and then Iran fell to China (7-0) and Chinese Taipei (5-0). In Australia at next year’s AFC Finals, half of the twelve team field will qualify directly for the 2027 WWC, with two more teams having an additional chance through the Intercontinental Playoffs. Australia, China, Korea Republic, Korea DPR and Japan are heavy favorites for the top six spots, as well as Philippines, who qualified in 2023 and have done quite well since in building the game at home. Iran and India—along with Vietnam—thus have a realistic chance of making the Intercontinental Playoffs, with Uzbekistan and Chinese Taipei in the mix, though this first finals tournament may be a bridge too far for finals debutants Pakistan, but they will learn a lot from the experience.
In the earlier match on July 19, Lebanon won their second match in a row with a goal around the hour mark by Lili Iskander (23), who has been playing in Saudi Arabia since the 2023-24 season with Al-Ittihad, scoring 10 goals in 31 games, but is now out of contract. She has also been with clubs in Denmark (Koge), Jordan and at home in Lebanon. Unfortunately, Australian defender Tiana Jaber went off injured in the 11th minute (see more below).
For the final group standings, Iran and Jordan both finished on nine points (3-0-1 records) but Iran advanced to the AFC Finals for the second consecutive tournament. Their 2-1 final match win over Jordan gave them the first tiebreaker of head-to-head results, even though Jordan ended up with a slightly better goal differential than Iran (+11 vs. +9). Bhutan and Lebanon tied for third with 6 points from identical 2-0-2 records, but Bhutan defeated Lebanon 2-1 in group play for third place, and again had a less robust goal differential than Lebanon (-7 vs. -2), with Singapore fifth with 0 points, scoring only twice while allowing 13 goals in their four matches.
Lebanon leaned heavily on their diaspora for their 22 player roster, with only seven playing at home. Other players were called in from clubs in: France (4), U.S. (3—2 in college and 1 in the summer amateur W-League), Australia (2), Cyprus (1), Denmark (1) and New Zealand (1). See our review of Lebanon and their Australian-born, Wellington Phoenix defender Tiana Jaber from earlier this year: The Week in Women's Football: A-League review; exclusive with Tiana Jaber on Lebanon call - TribalFootball.com).
Of Jordan’s 23 players for the tournament, five play in Saudi Arabia, two in the U.S. (one in college and one in the WPSL) and one in Germany, while 15 play for clubs in Jordan. Singapore called 21 players into the tournament, three from the U.S. (high schoolers at the high performance IMG Academy in Florida) and 18 based with domestic clubs.
Bhutan utilized an entirely home-based squad as did Iran, though four played in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League for Armenian side FC Pyunik: goalkeeper Mina Nafeei (26), defender Fatemeh Adeli (30), defender Shaghayegh Rouzbahan (30) and forward Hajar Dabbaghi (26) (see more in our UEFA WCL Review from last season: The Week in Women's Football: Deep-dive into Champions League first round; examining Belarus - TribalFootball.com). Pyunik qualified again for the 2025-26 UEFA Women’s Champions League Qualifiers and will start play at the end of July. It will be interesting to see if their Iranian quartet line up again with the team, which I saw last year as an innovative way for Iran to develop their national team player pool.
2025 Oceania Women’s Nations Cup
The 2025 Oceania Women’s Nations Cup—the thirteenth edition—was held in July of 2025 in Fiji, with eight teams divided into four first round groups. The top two teams in each group made the semifinals, while the two third place teams vied in a fifth/sixth place game and the two teams finishing at the bottom of each group contested a seventh/eighth place match, to provide these island nations with at least four games at this tournament. All the matches were held at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva with tickets only $5.
Unlike the last event in 2022, also held in Fiji, the tournament did not double as 2027 Women’s World Cup qualifiers, as the OFC will hold a specific qualifying event for the WWC closer to the tournament, which should include New Zealand, who have not participated in the last two Women’s Nations Cups (in 2022, New Zealand was a co-host for the 2023 WWC so didn’t have to qualify through the last OFC Nations Cup).
Group A
Papua New Guinea (7 points) and Samoa (6 points) advanced to the semifinals, with Tahiti (2 points) moving onto the fifth place game and Cook Islands (1 point) to the seventh place game.
Group B
Solomon Islands and host side Fiji made the semifinals on six points, with Solomon Islands winning the group on goal difference (+5 vs. +3). Vanuatu also finished on six points with the same goal difference as Fiji (+3) but Fiji qualified for the semifinal with one more goal scored than Vanuatu (6 vs. 5), even though Vanuatu won their last group game against Fiji 1-0 on an 32nd minute goal by Leimata Simon (24), who saw Fiji goalkeeper Emily Esposito (18) of Rewa well off her line and buried a long shot into the top corner of the net. Fiji was reduced to ten players within the first 20 minutes after captain and defender Jotivini Tabua (29) of Rewa was given a straight red card.
Fiji substitute striker Leba Narieta (20), also of Rewa, had five clear opportunities on goal; Vanuatu survived to post a shutout, but needed another goal to flip the goal differential in their favor and knock Fiji into the fifth place game. Simon scored a hat-trick in Vanuatu’s opening day 3-0 win over Tonga and their only goal three days later in a 2-1 loss to Solomon Islands. She finished in a tie for the tournament’s Golden Boot award with midfielder Marie Kaipu (27) of PNG and Port Moresby FC with five goals. Tonga finished in fourth with 0 points with 0 goals for and 11 goals against.
Knockout Stage
In the semifinals on July 16, Papua New Guinea defeated Fiji 2-1, building up a 2-0 lead by the 33rd minute in front of a crowd of 600, which was a repeat of the 2022 final, which PNG won by the same score. Fiji pulled one goal back in the 34th minute but there was no further scoring. Solomon Islands defeated Samoa 2-1 in the other semifinal with a crowd of 800 on hand, with again all the scoring being completed by the 34th minute. In other games on July 16, Vanuatu defeated Tahiti to capture fifth place on an Angelina Poida (18) goal in the 28th minute. Tonga beat Cook Islands 1-0 in the seventh/eighth place match thanks to a 90th minute goal from Leila Hausia-Haugen (21), who plays in the States at the University of Puget Sound in Washington State.
The championship final matched Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and the third place match was between host nation Fiji and Samoa, with both games the first meetings in the tournament between the sides. On July 17, Solomon Islands (ranked #86 in the latest FIFA women’s national team ratings as of June 12, 2025) upset Papua New Guinea (ranked #58) in overtime (3-2) in Suva to take the OFC Women’s Nations Cup title in their first ever OFC continental final. Papua New Guinea twice fought back from deficits to Solomon Islands, despite playing with only ten women for the entire second half of the match.
Lorina Solosaia (22) scored in the 18th minute, picking up a loose ball and dribbling into the box and rolling the ball into the net. Papua New Guinea tied up the match three minutes before half time as their captain, Ramona Padio (27) of Hekari United, scored from close range in the box after Solomon Island keeper Znaiab Donga (24) could not hold onto a long corner kick. Then PNG defender Merolyne Sali (26) of Allies was shown a straight red card for a late tackle on Madeline Arukau (22) on the edge of her own box, and Arukau scored from the penalty spot to give Solomon Islands the half-time lead. Ramona Padio tied the match again for PNG in the 65th minute from a free kick on the left side of goal.
During the 30 minutes of overtime—the first time an OFC Women’s Nations Cup final had not been settled in 90 minutes—substitute Jemina David scored in the 94th minute and Solomon Islands held off Papua New Guinea through the remaining 24+ minutes. The tournament attracted 1,150 fans—the highest attendance of the tournament. The Solomon Islands became the fifth different winner of the Nations Cup, joining New Zealand (6), Australia (3—now in the AFC), Chinese Taipei (2), and Papua New Guinea (1—in 2022).
In the third place match, Samoa defeated Fiji 2-0, with a brace by Lilly Dowsing (18) within the first 16 minutes of the match, in front of only 400 fans in Suva. On her second goal, she dribbled over 30 meters after receiving a pass as she headed into the Fiji end. There were two defenders but they didn’t close on her. She stopped and then curved a brilliant ball into the top right corner of the net as the defenders still backed off. This was Samoa’s best ever finish in the tournament, eclipsing two fourth place finishes in 2003 and 2022. The Fiji Kulas finished runners-up in the 2022 edition and finished in fourth in 2025. Since the first tournament in 1983, Fiji has two runner-up finishes (in 2018 and 2022) and finished fourth on three occasions.
Group A
Cook Islands
Head coach Angela Wallbank is an institution for the Cook Islands national football scene, having been involved in the Cook Islands WNT for a number of years, including at the South Pacific Games in 2011 in New Caledonia. She then guided the U-17 WNT to third place in Oceania U-17 WWC Qualifying in New Zealand. She is currently the head coach for the senior Women’s Team at Nikao Sokattak FC and took Tupapa-Maraerenga FC to the 2025 OFC Women’s Club Champions League in Tahiti this past May, finishing sixth out of eight teams entered (see more below).
Papua New Guinea
The PNG side is entirely home based except for one playing in Solomon Islands, though five do not have clubs identified. Their head coach, Eric Komeng (41), was a full international for PNG and played for PS United Port Moresby and Hekari United.
The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier reported on July 29, 2024 that PNG defender Olivia Upaupa (27) joined Frigates United in the Solomon Island’s Solrais Women’s Premier League.
She explained: “I started playing when I was 15 years old, and I have represented PNG in soccer for more than 10 years now, with my recent representation in the recently held South Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands in 2023, and the Olympic Qualifiers in Samoa at the beginning of this year.”
She previously played for Brisbane Olympic FC in Queensland in the NWPL (state league). She also played at home for Tusbab Laiamon in Madang. She talked about her move to the Solomon Islands: “For myself, I’m so excited, happy, and at the same time humbled because not all Papua New Guinean women and girls get this type of opportunity.”
Samoa
In April, the Samoa U-17 Women’s National Team made history for Samoa and the Pacific region by making the Dallas Cup semifinals, the annual long-running youth tournament in Texas that has drawn teams from around the world; this year the Dallas Cup hosted 132 girls/women’s teams across all age categories. The Tama’ita’i was undefeated in the Group Stage and then won their quarterfinal with a shutout, but lost a close game in the semifinals.
The Samoa Football Federation’s website announced: “This campaign has been about more than just football — it’s about breaking barriers, gaining invaluable international exposure, and showing the world the strength of Samoan football. The pride, unity, and spirit our players have shown will inspire generations to come.” The Dallas Cup was part of Samoa’s preparation for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco this October, where they will represent the OFC in the 24 team finals along with New Zealand.
Samoa’s WNT head coach Juan Jose Chang was born in Germany and played internationally for Guatemala. He played at Oral Roberts University, then for U.S. minor league sides and for clubs in Guatemala and New Zealand. He coached the women’s side with Coastal Spirit in Christchurch, New Zealand and went to Samoa in 2023, where has coached the U-17, the U-20 women’s and the senior side.
Monique Fisher (33) has been a member of the WNT for a decade. She was born in Auckland, New Zealand and has played in England, Wales, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. She worked as a journalist in New Zealand.
Tahiti
In the 2024-25 women’s D1 league championship, AS Pirae won the title.
AS Pirae won the women’s Ligue 1 title in 2024-25 in Tahiti. Graphic courtesy of Fédération Tahitienne de Football.
Midfielder Kiani Wong (24) was born in Papeete, Tahiti and is currently playing in France with Bordeaux. Wong previously played in Germany with Saarbrucken, in Wales with Cardiff City and in England with Yeovil United. In May 2016, she attended the acclaimed INF Clairefontaine Academy in France and studied at the Lycée Jean Monnet and the University of Strasbourg; she also played with FC Vendenheim in Alsace, France.
She was named an Oceania Football Confederation ambassador in 2021 and played with Tahiti in its historic first senior national team tour of Europe in February 2022, where they lost by 5-0 and 11-0 scorelines to Luxembourg 5-0 and then tied Andorra 0-0.
In addition, Wong and fellow Vahine 'Ura footballers Gwendoline Fournier and Camille Andre were featured on a national stamp by Fare Rata—Tahiti’s national postal service—to celebrate International Women’s Day in 2023.
The Tahitian Postal Service Fare Rata wanted to celebrate women’s football in French Polynesia with the stamp, explaining: “The practice of sport, in general, and its media coverage participate in the evolution of mentalities actively contributing to gender equality. Football, by its universality, when it is practiced at a high level by women, perfectly illustrates their technical and tactical skills, their commitment to collective performance, on an equal footing with men! Women in sport thus become inspiring examples.” Fare Rata also signed on as a sponsor with the women’s section of the Tahitian Football Federation in January 2022, in order to support its further development.
Group B
Fiji
Fiji had four players from the U.S. (three in college and one in the USL summer amateur W League—Trina Davis of FC Olympia in Washington State), two from New Zealand, two who were playing in Papua New Guinea and 16 based with clubs at home.
Three of the imports made their senior debuts for the Fiji Kulas during the tournament: goalkeeper Ka’iulani Scott (17) of Eastern Suburbs FC in New Zealand, defender Akanisi Sorovakarua (20) of West LA College in the U.S. and midfielder Anisha Dwarka (18) of Jessup University in the U.S. (see more below on Scott and Dwarka).
Fiji coach Angeline Chua gave a full national team debut at half time of the semifinal with PNG to 14-year-old Adi Ulamila Reva, replacing veteran forward Trina Davis. Reva’s father, Filimoni Lagivala Nale, played representative football for regional side Tavua.
Fiji’s starting lineup for their Group B finale against Vanuatu (0-1) on July 11 in Suva at the 2025 OFC Oceania Nations Cup. American diaspora imports include Trina Davis (#9) and Preeya Singh (#12), while Adi Bankaniceva (#3) plays in Papua New Guinea with Hekari United. Emily Esposito (#20) and Jotivini Tabua (#11) play with Fiji side Rewa while Sereana Naweni (#19) also plays at home with Ba.
Anisha Dwarka (18) made her senior debut at the tournament for Fiji Kulas after missing the regional U-19 tournament two years ago with a torn ACL. She told FijiFootball.com about that experience: “It was devastating. I had worked so hard to be ready for that moment, and to have it taken away was tough.”
She now plays college football at William Jessup University in California, and played elite youth football with the Northern California Olympic Development Program and the Japan FA Academy. She was excited to be selected by Fiji again: “Even while playing in the U.S., I always knew my heart belonged to Fiji. Representing the country where my family comes from is incredibly special.” Fiji Kulas head coach Angeline Chua said about her new full national team recruit: “Anisha brings great composure and creativity to our midfield. But beyond that, she brings heart — and you can’t coach that.”
Goalkeeper Ka’iulani Scott (18) is another young diaspora recruit who was also looking forward to her debut with Fiji, explaining: “It’s such a surreal experience, especially being the first person in my family to represent Fiji… This isn’t just my debut. It’s a milestone for my entire family… I’m so excited—playing in front of them makes it extra special.” She gravitated to goalkeeping because of a sibling rivalry: “My older brother is also a goalkeeper. That’s kind of how I got into the position. I’ve always wanted to be better than him, so it was a great challenge.”
Solomon Islands
The 2025-26 Solomon Islands Telekom S-League—one of the better organized women’s leagues in the region—shows KOSSA leading a very close league with 24 points (7-3-0) after 10 games. Reigning champions Central Coast (23 points), Green Shield (23 points) and Malata Kingz (21 points) all have played nine games and have title hopes.
The other eight sides in the league include Honiara City (15 points), Marist (11 points), SOSA (10 points), Juniper (7 points after 10 games), Laugu United (7 points after 10 games), Southern United (6 points after 10 games), GHUPO (6 points) and Waneagu United (5 points). Since the league started in 2000, Solomon Warriors have won 9 titles, followed by Koloale (6), Marist Fire (3), Western United (2), Central Coast (2), Laugu United (1), Central Realas (1), Henderson Eels (1) and KOSSA (1).
Tonga
Tonga has six players based in the U.S. (five with clubs and one in college), two in New Zealand and the other 15 play at home in their 23 player roster. Tongan-based Sophiana Moala, Ann Loti, and goalkeeper Helena Otukolo were named as reserve players.
Vanuatu
Vanuatu’s WNT captain and goalkeeper Jesta Toka (27) won the player of the match award for their last group game upset of host Fiji (1-0). She has also played in the Australian (Rules) Football League (AFL) for the Wyong Lake Magpies in Newcastle, New South Wales in 2024, the first athlete from Vanuatu to join a Women’s AFL team. Toka made history by winning an AFL tournament on Australian soil, the AFL Hunter Central Coast Women’s Premiership League (division 2) for the Black Diamond Plate.
Among the Vanuata Nations Cup squad are three players who contributed to Vanuatu’s historic gold medal victory at the 2017 Pacific Mini Games: Jane Alatoa, Brenda Anis, and Vanissa Wilson. Vanuatu was the host nation in the tournament that the OFC hosted for national women’s teams—limited to domestic players: Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Solomon Islands. After the group Stage, Tonga beat Solomon Islands 1-0 and in the Championship match and Vanuata defeated Fiji 2-1.
Interestingly, on the men’s side, Vanuatu is preparing to join the OFC Pro League, which is due to start in 2026 with 8 teams throughout the region. Vanuatu’s Football Federation is seeking a vote on the team’s name, which will represent all six provinces in the nation. Proposed names include:
Vanuatu FC
Vanuatu United FC
Vanuatu Hawks FC
Vanuatu Chiefs United FC
Vanua Islanders FC
We have to ask if the OFC and federations in the region are considering a companion league on the women’s side, which would be a huge boost to the women’s game in Oceania, where there are only two professional women’s teams in the entire region—Auckland and Wellington Phoenix of Australia’s A-League Women.
Penama Tigers won the 2025 VFF Women’s Champions League in February in defeating Londua 6-1. The teams come from regional leagues for the national competition. Penama Tigers thus qualified for the 2025 OFC Women’s Champions league in May, but withdrew from the tournament just before the start in Tahiti (see below).
2025 OFC Women’s Champions League
Note: The 2025 OFC Women’s Champions League thus had seven teams, with Penama Tigers’ not participating. In Group A, Ba of Fiji (6 points) and Henderson Eels of Solomon Islands (3 points) advanced over Tupapa Maraerenga of Cook Islands (0 points), with each team playing two games as Penama Tigers was to be the fourth team. In Group B, Auckland United of New Zealand were undefeated with 9 points, scoring 24 goals with one against, while Hekari Women of Papua New Guinea also made the semifinals on 6 points. Host side Pirae of Tahiti (3 points) and PanSa of Samoa (0 points) were eliminated from the competition.
In the semifinals, both games ended 6-1 with Hekari defeating Ba and Auckland United blasting Henderson Eels 6-1, with Zoe Benson scoring a hat-trick and the ultimate winner in the 5th minute for AU. In the Final on May 17, in front of 300 fans at Stade Pater in Pirae, Auckland had a much more difficult time against Hekari, winning the match 1-0 on a 24th minute goal by Danielle Canham. Interestingly, this was the final score in the 2024 final between the same two sides.
Hekari also finished second in the first ever tournament in 2023 (in a group stage event with five teams after Eastern Suburbs of New Zealand withdrew) to AS Academy of New Caledonia. Hekari suffered a major blow before the 2025 final as their PNG international playmaker Ramona Padio (see above) missed the tournament with an ankle injury during the semifinal win over Ba; she was out for six weeks but returned in time for the Oceania Nations Cup Finals.
Auckland United qualified for the inaugural 2026 FIFA Women’s Champions Cup next year against the AFC champions Wuhan Jiangda of China (who will host) in the first round, with the winner visiting the CAF champions in round two. Auckland United also has a good shot to be in the play-in round for the inaugural 2028 FIFA Club World Cup, which will be determined by the OFC rankings of Oceania Champions League winners over the previous four seasons.
Greenland’s Football is still unaligned as CONCACAF rebuffs their bid
CONCACAF rejected Greenland’s bid to join the regional confederation as their 42nd member in June. Kenneth Kleist, the president of the Greenlandic Football Association (KAK), which was founded in 1971, was not pleased with the decision, calling it: “a setback for places like Greenland.” He added on social media: “This is not a victory for football democracy, it does not make football accessible to everyone globally, and it shows that smaller nations are facing extreme difficulties in getting permission to play under their own flag.”
The CONCACAF delegates at their 28th Extraordinary Congress, their administration, council and members associations, unanimously rejected Greenland’s application and the confederation posted the following on their website: “Based on a thorough assessment conducted by the CONCACAF administration and Council, and in accordance with the CONCACAF Statutes, the Member Associations reviewed the membership application submitted by the Greenlandic Football Association and unanimously rejected it,” Greenland (55,770 people in 2025) is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, with the same status as similarly-sized Faroe Islands (52,933 in 2024), who joined UEFA in 1988, over 35 years ago. Greenland was similarly rebuffed in their efforts to join UEFA.
Their non-aligned status particularly hurts their youth national teams’ development as they do not get regular regional tournament invites but are continual guests at tournaments or participate in tournaments with other non-aligned nations. Other territories who are FIFA members include Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Island, Guam, American Samoa (all U.S.), British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, New Caledonia (all France).
Greenland’s national team head coach, Morten Rutkjær, expressed in February to The Athletic that joining CONCACAF would give his players, and future generations in Greenland, something to play for. It’ll give meaning to training a lot, to staying in shape. Right now, they have nothing to look forward to. So for us, it’s very important. It’s also important to be a member of CONCACAF because the small children will have something to dream about, to maybe be part of the national team and play against all of those countries. There’s enormous meaning for us to be a part of CONCACAF.” With Danish citizenship, individual players from Greenland can play for Danish national teams at all levels.
It seemed always a reach for Greenland and came with the baggage of possibly opening the door for French Territory St. Pierre and Miquelon to join—with their three local teams. I’m sure CONCACAF members in South America—Surinam and Guyana—would have been apoplectic going to either Northern Land from a logistics and costs standpoint, though both technically are part of North America—Denmark/Greenland shares a land border with Canada/Nunavut on Hans Island.
It probably didn’t help that U.S. President Donald Trump started to say early this year that Greenland residents wanted to be part of the U.S.—which is not what polls are showing. Kleist wasn’t sure in February if this rhetoric would hurt their cause: “It’s very difficult to answer that, because I think, in some ways, it’s hurting our case a little bit, because there are so many journalists in the football world asking CONCACAF and us about Trump. But in the big picture, I think it’s good for us because everybody’s talking about what’s next for Greenland.”
Whether or not it was a factor in the decision, the key point is that what’s next is further football in the non-aligned world. Greenland seems on a path to independence and then membership in FIFA would seem assured. The question then becomes: ‘Do they look to join UEFA or CONCACAF?’ To me, UEFA would make more sense, with cultural ties to Denmark (which currently supplies half of its GDP mostly through aid), Faroe Islands and Iceland as well as the other Nordic countries, their revenue sharing and grant possibilities would be much larger than with CONCACAF. However, this is a decision for down the line.
One suggestion equated Greenland’s effort to Transnistria (Russian controlled enclave) joining the Oceania Confederation—which years ago housed Chinese Taipei in 1976-78 and again from 1982-89 until they joined the AFC, while Israel participated in their men’s World Cup Qualifiers in 1986 and 1990 for political reasons but were not official members of the OFC. Shuttling Greenland off to the OFC isn’t an option as it puts huge fiscal and logistic issues on the OFC members—worse than with CONCACAF—and doesn’t help their member nations grow.
It also further confirms the feeling that the OFC is a confederation that FIFA and others didn’t really want 59 years ago when it was founded and has always been a bit of a dumping ground for political problem members. This attitude doesn’t help their member nations’ development, particularly on the women’s side. We will continue to follow Greenland’s efforts to join the world football family, but think that UEFA would be a better fit for many reasons once independence from Denmark is achieved.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey