On duty at Nations Cup

Cook Islands Football president Lee Harmon, match official Terry Piri and referee assessor Robert Savage are currently in the Solomon Islands to officiate at the Oceania Football Confederation Nations Cup starting today and running for 10 days.

The tournament is the stage 2 Oceania zone qualifier for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.

Harmon will be one of the match commissioners during the Nations Cup while Terry Piri will be one of the assistant match officials and Robert Savage will be assessing the referees’ performance during the tournament.

Honiara’s Lawson Tama Stadium is the venue where the hosts are set to battle it out with Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti and Vanuatu from for Oceania’s most coveted football prize. The winner of the tournament will book a spot at the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 while the top four teams will advance to contest the home-and-away stage 3 qualifiers beginning in September en route to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Sixteen matches will be played throughout the tournament and no doubt will be watched by those who follow football all around the globe.

The All Whites are the favourites but have been drawn in a challenging group B with the hosts, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea while group A is likely to prove just as intriguing with New Caledonia, Samoa, Tahiti and Vanuatu all trying to keep their 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil hopes alive.

The OFC Nations Cup kicked off yesterday at Lawson Tama Stadium in Honiara with Samoa and Tahiti at 12pm local time and Vanuatu faced New Caledonia at 3pm.