Football at the Pacific Games

Football at the Pacific Games
Founded	1963
Current champions	New Caledonia ; Men (2023); Papua New Guinea ; Women (2023)
Most successful team(s)	New Caledonia ; Men (8 titles); Papua New Guinea ; Women (6 titles)
	Football at the 2023 Pacific Games ; Men's · Women's

Last updated July 04, 2024

Association football has been regularly included in the Pacific Games, the multi-sports event for Pacific nations, territories and dependencies, since 1963. Until 2011 the competition was known as the South Pacific Games.^[1]

Since 1971 the men's tournament has been held every four years, but was not played in 1999 due to contractual issues. In 2007, the men's competition doubled as the Oceania Football Confederation's preliminary qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[2] The men's tournament also became the Olympic qualifier for Oceania for the 2015 edition.

The women's tournament was introduced in 2003, and has doubled up as the preliminary qualifying competition for the Olympic Games since 2007. Football was a compulsory inclusion at the Pacific Games for men's teams for many years but was made a core sport for both men's and women's teams in 2017.^[3] Football has also been held at several editions of the Pacific Mini Games, starting with the first tournament in 1981.^[4]

Men's tournament

Participating nations

Numbers refer to the final placing of each team at the respective Games. Host nation is shown in bold.– See also the §Key to symbols within this section below the two tables.

	63	66	69	71	75	79	83	87	91	95	99	03	07	11	15	19	23	Years played
American Samoa	–	–	–	–	–	–	P	6	–	–	–	–	P	P	–	P	12	6
Cook Islands	–	–	–	6	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	P	P	–	–	8	5
Fiji	2	–	4	5	4	2	2	–	1	3	–	1	2	4	4	3	3	14
Guam	–	–	–	–	P	6	–	–	P	P	–	–	–	P	–	–	–	5
Kiribati	–	–	–	–	–	9*	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	P	–	–	†	3
Micronesia (F.S.)	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	P	–	–	2
New Caledonia	1	2	1	1	2	4	3	1	3	P	–	2	1	1	1	2	1	16
New Zealand U-23	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	‡	1	–	2
Niue	–	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1
Northern Marianas	–	–	–	–	–	–	†	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	10	1
Papua New Guinea	P	4	3	4	P	9*	4	3	P	P	–	P	–	P	3	4	6	15
Samoa	–	–	–	–	–	9*	5*	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	P	7	5
Solomon Islands	4	P	6	–	3	3	P	–	2	2	–	P	4	2	P	P	2	14
Tahiti	3	1	2	3	1	1	1	2	P	1	–	4	P	3	2	P	5	16
Tonga	–	–	–	–	–	7*	P	–	–	–	–	P	P	–	–	P	11	6
Tuvalu	–	–	–	–	–	7*	–	–	–	–	–	P	P	P	–	P	9	6
Vanuatu	P	3	5	2	P	5	P	4	4	4	–	3	3	P	P	P	4	16
Wallis and Futuna	–	P	–	–	–	9*	5*	5	P	P	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	6
Number of teams All-time total: 18	6	6	6	6	7	12	11	6	8	9	–	10	10	11	8^#	11	12	16 Editions

Legend

Key to symbols
1	Gold medal for first place	n	n^th place (e.g. 5 is fifth place)
2	Silver medal for second place	P	Pool or group stage elimination
3	Bronze medal for third place	*	Asterisk for shared placing (e.g. 5* is equal fifth)
4	Fourth place	^#	Contested by under-23 national teams only
–	Did not play	†	Withdrew before competition (did not play)
‡	Played in the tournament (FIFA qualification) but excluded from the Pacific Games placings

Results

The table below is a summary of the finals matches in men's football at the Pacific Games since 1963: ^[4]

Year	Host city			Final			Third place match

Year	Host city		Gold	Score	Silver		Bronze	Score	Fourth place
1963	Suva		New Caledonia	8–2	Fiji		Tahiti	7–2	Solomon Islands
1966	Nouméa		Tahiti	2–0	New Caledonia		New Hebrides	5–2	Papua New Guinea
1969	Port Moresby		New Caledonia	2–1	Tahiti		Papua New Guinea	2–1	Fiji
1971	Papeete		New Caledonia	7–1	New Hebrides		Tahiti	8–1	Papua New Guinea
1975	Tumon		Tahiti	2–1	New Caledonia		Solomon Islands	3–2	Fiji
1979	Suva		Tahiti	3–0	Fiji		Solomon Islands	3–1	New Caledonia
1983	Apia		Tahiti	1–0	Fiji		New Caledonia	2–1	Papua New Guinea
1987	Nouméa		New Caledonia	1–0	Tahiti		Papua New Guinea	3–1	Vanuatu
1991	Port Moresby		Fiji	1–1 (^5–4 _{. pen.})	Solomon Islands		New Caledonia	3–1	Vanuatu
1995	Papeete		Tahiti	2–0	Solomon Islands		Fiji	3–0	Vanuatu
1999	No football tournament in 1999

2003	Suva	Fiji	2–0	New Caledonia	Vanuatu	1–0	Tahiti
2007	Apia	New Caledonia	1–0	Fiji	Vanuatu	2–0	Solomon Islands
2011	Nouméa	New Caledonia	2–0	Solomon Islands	Tahiti	2–1	Fiji
2015	Port Moresby	New Caledonia	2–0	Tahiti	Papua New Guinea	2–1	Fiji
2019	Apia	New Zealand U-23	2–1	New Caledonia	Fiji	1–1 (^4–2 _{. pen.})	Papua New Guinea
2023	Honiara	New Caledonia	2–2 (^7–6 _{. pen.})	Solomon Islands	Fiji	4–2	Vanuatu

Performances by countries

Below are the 7 nations that have reached at least the semi-final stage in the Pacific Games.

Team	Winner	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
New Caledonia	8 ('63, '69, '71, '87, '07, '11, '15, '23)	4 ('66, '75, '03, '19)	2 ('83, '91)	1 ('79)
Tahiti (French Polynesia)	5 ('66, '75, '79, '83, '95)	3 ('69, '87, '15)	3 ('63, '71, '11)	1 ('03)
Fiji	2 ('91, '03)	4 ('63, '79, '83, '07)	3 ('95, '19, '23)	4 ('69, '75, '11, '15)
New Zealand U-23	1 ('19)
Solomon Islands		4 ('91, '95, '11, '23)	2 ('75, '79)	2 ('63, '07)
Vanuatu (New Hebrides)		1 ('71)	3 ('66, '03, '07)	4 ('87, '91, '95, '23)
Papua New Guinea			3 ('69, '87, '15)	4 ('66, '71, '83, '19)

Golden boot awardees

Year	Player	Goals
1963–1995	Unknown	-
2003	Esala Masi	11
2007	Osea Vakatalesau	10
2011	Bertrand Kaï	10
2015	Jean Kaltack	17
2019	Gagame Feni Tony Kaltak Jean-Philippe Saïko	9