Introducing the OFC Pro League: The Saudi-backed route to the Club World Cup | OneFootball

This article was written by The Sweeper Podcast, a weekly world football podcast covering all 211 FIFA countries – and beyond. You can listen to The Sweeper on Spotify here and on Apple Podcasts here.

While the Manchester derby dominated headlines as the most high-profile rivalry taking place in world football last weekend, a new regional showdown was quietly making history on the other side of the planet. In Oceania, the New Zealand duo of Auckland FC and South Island United met for the first time, ushering in a new rivalry in an entirely new competition.

Saturday’s match was only the second ever in the OFC Pro League, following the competition’s inaugural fixture between Fiji’s Bula FC and Vanuatu United. Played as part of the league’s first circuit series – of which there will be six in total – the all-Kiwi clash ended in a comfortable 3-0 victory for Auckland FC, who hosted both matches at their Eden Park home.

Designed to sit above the OFC Champions League as the region’s premier club competition, the Pro League represents a major shift in Oceania football. It is the first fully professional tournament the confederation has ever staged, bringing together the leading clubs across the Pacific in a format never seen before in the region. But what exactly is the OFC Pro League? Who is involved? And how, in practice, does it all work?

What is the OFC Pro League?

The Oceania Football Confederation has long lagged behind the other five continents when it comes to professionalising the sport.

At the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, semi-pro Auckland City qualified as the region’s sole representative by winning the OFC Champions League for the fourth year in a row – a reflection of their continental supremacy and the lack of fully professional structures. For decades, that – combined with limited funding and vast travel distances – has prevented OFC from establishing a professional competition.

But eight years after exploratory discussions first began, the inaugural OFC Pro League launched in January 2026. The competition has been made possible by significant financial backing from Saudi Arabia, which is reportedly investing close to NZ$35 million to help launch the league and underwrite it during its first four years. The move is widely viewed as the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s growing use of football as a soft-power tool on the global stage.

The Pro League’s objective is to create a sustainable, fully professional environment for players, staff and clubs, while developing young talent across the Pacific and improving Oceania’s competitiveness internationally. That ambition inevitably extends to the FIFA Club World Cup, where Oceania’s representative will be determined by the best-performing Pro League club over a four-year cycle. So who might that be at the next edition of the tournament in 2029?

Which clubs are in the OFC Pro League?

The OFC announced the eight participating clubs last August following a formal selection procedure. The line-up includes three established sides – Auckland FC, PNG Hekari (Papua New Guinea) and South Melbourne (Australia) – alongside five newly created clubs: South Island United (formed by Christchurch United to represent New Zealand’s South Island), Solomon Kings (Solomon Islands), Bula FC, Tahiti United and Vanuatu United.

The inclusion of A-League club Auckland FC and Australian Championship side South Melbourne among the participants benefits from additional context.

Auckland FC were granted a licence on the condition they would send a reserve side, bolstered by a limited number of senior players, to the competition. South Melbourne, meanwhile, are participating as a guest club from an AFC nation and will not be eligible to represent OFC at the Club World Cup, even if they do qualify on merit.

How does the OFC Pro League work?

The first stage, which is currently underway in New Zealand (and seen one clash between Bula FC and South Island United postponed), will be followed by circuit series in Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. During that phase, the participating clubs will face each opponent twice and play 14 matches in total – three at each circuit series except for Honiara in the Solomon Islands, where they will each play twice.

At the end of the fifth round in Ba and Suva in April, the eight-team table will split into two groups: the top four (the Leaders’ Group) and the bottom four (the Challengers’ Group).

The teams will then return to New Zealand in mid-May to play the sixth and final series. Each participant will face the other three teams in their group, with the top three in the Leaders’ Group qualifying directly for the semi-finals and the bottom team taking on the winner of the Challengers’ Group to determine the remaining knockout berth.

The final four will then play a single-leg semi-final and final to become Oceania’s first professional football champion and win the right to represent the continent globally – an honour that will bring the recipient both enormous prestige and valuable prize money.