Capacity crowd at the fourth round of this year’s Oceania Football Confederation Professional League (OFC Pro League) has seen the 2027 final moved to Honiara.
This year’s inaugural OFC Pro League final was held at Eden Park in Auckland, which closed off major parts of the grandstand and the retail area because of low crowd turnout.
In a statement on Tuesday, OFC confirmed the Solomon Islands would host the final of the 2027 OFC Pro League season.
“It follows on from scenes that saw Honiara’s National Stadium packed with passionate fans during its successful hosting of circuit series four of the inaugural season earlier this year,” the OFC said.
Honiara recorded capacity crowd on each of the match-days during the first season’s round four competition. While confirming the final venue, OFC also revealed there will be a new finals format in 2027.
It will involve all eight clubs, kicking off on 25 May with the play-offs, followed by the quarterfinals on 29 May and the semifinals on 2 June.
The second season of Oceania’s first-ever professional football competition kicks off on Friday, 22 January in Australia. Other round one matches will also be co-hosted by Papua New Guinea.
The first game of the new season will feature Vanuatu United FC and Solomon Kings FC.
Defending champions Auckland FC will begin their title defence in a rematch of the 2026 final against South Melbourne FC later the same evening.
Tahiti United will meet South Island United in the first game of match-day two in Port Moresby, followed by PNG’s Hekari United and Fiji’s Bula FC.
Vanuatu will host matches for the first time in round five, co-hosting with Fiji, while round three will have New Zealand and the Solomon Islands co-hosting as well.
The first New Zealand derby of the season will come in circuit round three in Aotearoa, as South Island United meet Auckland FC on Sunday, 7 March.
There will be five rounds of pool matches between 22 January and 8 May.
The eight teams confirmed again in the OFC Pro-League are defending champions Auckland FC and South Island United representing New Zealand, Bula FC of Fiji, Vanuatu United FC, Solomon Kings of Solomon Islands, Tahiti United, Hekari United of PNG and South Melbourne of Australia.
