The Oceania Football Confederation this week revealed Luganville as one of the host for the Oceania Champions League in 2020.
OFC competition department disclose to its member association all the winning bidders for 2020 OCL from a total of 5 country MAs that bid for hosting the group stage, namely Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.
OFC Executive Committee have made a decision to award rights to host a group tournament to Papua New Guinea Football Association, Vanuatu Football Federation, Federation Caledonienne de Football and Federation Tahitienne de Football.
According to the selection criteria, Luganville was selected instead of Port-Vila and other venues because they never hosted any champions league games in the past.
Also it was noted that OFC Competitions has applied a principle that an MA/Club could only host for a maximum of 2 consecutive years, after which they would not be preferred for the 3rd year so that the hosting of a Group Stage tournament could be spread as evenly as possible throughout the region.
As a result, Galaxy FC Runner Up is in pool A could not host in Port-Vila while Malampa Revivors FC as Champions of Vanuatu is in pool B and eligible to host in Luganville.
| Group Stage | |||
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| 1 Hienghène Sport [NCL] | 1 Malampa Revivors [VAN] | 1 AS Magenta [NCL] | 1 AS Venus [TAH] |
| 2 Eastern Suburbs [NZL] | 2 Lae City FC [PNG] | 2 S-League Winner [SOL] | 2 Ba FC [FIJ] |
| 3 Hekari United [PNG] | 3 S-League Runner-up [SOL] | 3 AS Tiare Tahiti [TAH] | 3 Auckland City FC [NZL] |
| 4 Galaxy FC [VAN] | 4 Lautoka FC [FIJ] | 4 Qualifying Stage Runner-up | 4 Qualifying Stage Winner |
OFC will now work with VFF and other host association to finalise the match details of the qualifying stage and group stage.
Photos from Vanuatu Tourism Office
Espiritu Santo is famous for its beautiful scenery from white sandy Champagne Beach voted one of the world’s most beautiful beaches from Lonnoc to Port Olry, with five epic blue holes, caves, World War II relics, as well as a variety of indigenous cultures.
It is also famous for its world-class dive sites of USS Tucker, submarine nets, plane wrecks, Tui Tawaite including wreck of SS President Coolidge a 22,000 ton luxury liner that was converted into a troop ship and sunk by World War II mines in 1942.
According to OFC, all of the bids have adequately demonstrated they could successfully host a Group Stage of the OFC Champions League in 2020, however some MAs have partially met the criteria.
Luganville has before hosted international soccer events like the Melanesia Cup in 1998, OFC Men’s U17 in 2013 and OFC Men’s U20 in 2017.
