The Knockout Cup finals this Saturday will serve as the selection ground for the national men’s team to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ OFC preliminary competition in Qatar in March, 2022.

Cook Islands is one of the nine teams from the region taking part in this World Cup qualifiers to be held in Qatar between March 14-30 next year.

The national side will battle Tonga in the qualifiers match for a place in the group stage of the competition where they will get a chance to play against Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu.

Cook Islands Football Association (CIFA) competition manager, Pauline Dean said initially they were not certain about participating in this tournament. The decision to compete in this event was made following the easing of international borders.

“There were a lot of things that we had to consider like the cost due to quarantine and especially the time away from family and work. We didn’t want to put that sort of pressure on our players,” Dean said.

“But with the announcement of border reopening, it made things a bit easier travel wise so we decided to confirm our participation.”

Dean together with CIFA general secretary Mii Piri-Savage have been working on visas and other logistics way ahead of the tournament to ensure everything is in place for this momentous trip.

“We are gathering all the information, off the field stuff like immigration rules when travelling to Qatar and health requirement of the players, to make the team’s travel easier.”

The selection of the team will start in the coming weeks and Dean said this weekend’s Knockout Cup final could serve as a perfect opportunity for selectors to eye potential squad members.

CIFA will also consider players of Cook Islands descent living in Australia and New Zealand.

According to OFC, the qualifying stage will be a single match between the Cook Islands and Tonga – the two lowest-ranked participating OFC nations in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings – with the winner advancing to the group stage.

The group stage will then see eight teams (being the winner of the qualification stage match and the other seven nations) drawn into two groups of four, with each team playing each of their group opponents once (single round-robin, with three group matches for each team). 

The winner and runner-up from each group qualify for a single leg semi-final match, with the two winners advancing to a single leg final match. 

The overall winner qualifies for the intercontinental play-off against a nation from Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) on June 13 or 14.

OFC general secretary Franck Castillo earlier said it was exciting to confirm the return of international football for Oceania nations, who with the exception of New Zealand, will be playing international opposition for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“We are thrilled to finally be in a position to hold the OFC qualifiers for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™,” Castillo said. 

“It is of upmost importance to OFC that we are able to stage this tournament and provide a platform for our Member Associations to return to international matches.

“Logistically it has been an extremely challenging exercise and one that has seen us forced to host the qualifiers outside of our own region. 

“We are incredibly grateful for the support of FIFA, the Qatar Football Association and our own OFC Member Associations throughout this process, as well as the local Governments involved. 

“The region can now look forward to a wonderful tournament which will see nine nations play for the chance to be part of the next World Cup.”

The decision to host the preliminary competition in Qatar came after no OFC Member Association was able to receive approval from their government to host the centralised tournament in their country, due to restrictions in place for the Covid-19 pandemic.