Photo: Photosport
Licences for professional football clubs are coveted, contentious and complex - especially when neighbouring countries are in different confederations.
Twenty-four teams from around the Pacific are vying for eight licences in the Oceania Football Confederation Professional League, scheduled to kick off next January.
Teams from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu have bid to participate, with the successful sides to be announced in September.
This "transformative moment for football in Oceania" will rely on at least one team from the Asia Football Confederation (AFC) - an Australia-based team - to bolster the new league's marketability and audience, just like the A-League benefits from having two New Zealand-based sides in their competition.
While some teams - Auckland FC, Nelson Suburbs, Bougainville FC, Lae City FC, Port Moresby City FC, Hekari United FC and South Melbourne - have made public their desire to join the OFC Professional League, the most successful club side in the region, Auckland City, "will not be participating in the competition in any capacity".
Hekari United playing in 2023. Photo: Phototek
The new league has the personal support of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and the OFC will underwrite the participation of New Zealand and Pacific Island clubs, which fall under their governance, but any Australian clubs selected must fund their own involvement.
Australia exited OFC for the AFC nearly 20 years ago, but geography and football as entertainment mean links remain at the professional level - with a few quirks.
NZ-based A-League teams are currently in a unique position, operating out of a country in the OFC and playing in a competition run by a country in the AFC.
The Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC A-League licences require approval from OFC, AFC and FIFA. Their club licensing framework is set by Football Australia.
The Phoenix and Auckland FC require OFC, AFC and FIFA approval to contest the A-League. Photo: Photosport / Shane Wenzlick
If Auckland or Wellington win the A-League, they can not play in the Asian Champions League as Australia-based winners can.
While the A-League is currently happy to have two licences filled by New Zealand (OFC) clubs, the relationship has sometimes been rocky.
Ten years ago, former Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop accused Wellington Phoenix of "squatting" on their A-League licence.
Seven years ago, Australian media reported the Phoenix's "demise is seemingly inevitable", unless the club improved against key off-field metrics. The Phoenix were short of the attendance, television audience and membership targets required for an automatic licence renewal.
Professional football in New Zealand was on shaky ground, as some in Australia looked across at New Zealand and the Phoenix with disdain.
However, Australia's A-League clubs rallied behind New Zealand's only professional football side at that time and kept the Phoenix in their competition.
In 2023, when the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) took control of running the A-League, the landscape changed. With clubs taking a stake in the A-League, the possibility of being booted out for failing to meet certain non-financial metrics diminished.
Clubs will survive, even if licences need to change hands, and the Phoenix can play on beyond next season, which was when their licence was due to expire under the old model.
Wellington Phoenix have survived attempts to have them booted out of the A-League. Photo: Marty Melville
"This club is built on the hard times," Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano said. "I still remember Covid.
"I came here six years ago, and went through the phase of 'Phoenix out' and so on. I've heard all the crap."
Last season was the Phoenix's best on the field. They won more games than ever before and amassed 53 competition points in the regular season, seven more than their previous best.
The club just missed out on the Premiers Plate and lost in the semi-finals.
This season, the Phoenix are in Auckland FC's shadow, on and off the field.
Eighteen games into their first season in the league, Auckland FC are at the top of the standings, and are held up by the league as examples of good-sized crowds and "epic" competition on the field.
Coach of second-placed Adelaide United Carl Veart believed Auckland FC had caught the rest of the competition off guard with how competitive they were, but also the way the club was operating.
"A breath of fresh air for the league, as well, to see another new side that's come in and done the right things, getting good support, doing the right things by the community... it ticks a lot of boxes."
Veart said spectator numbers in Auckland were good for the game.
Auckland Fc v Wellington Phoenix, Go Media Mt Smart Stadium. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
"It just improves the spectacle, when you've got such a big crowd," he said. "We're a little bit fortunate that, where we play at Coopers Stadium, the stadium is fit for purpose for what we want.
"With 12-13,000, it's a full stadium and the atmosphere is excellent, and it lifts the performances from the players. I think you've seen that this year in Auckland... the 27,000 [against Wellington Phoenix], the atmosphere watching that game was exciting as a neutral."
Auckland FC were open about wanting to join the OFC league - as well as remaining in the A-League - and chief executive Nick Becker believed his club and Wellington Phoenix would be the best qualified to get a licence for that competition, given they were already meeting the higher standards required by the AFC licence in the A-League.
The Phoenix have not said if they are interested in the OFC league.
There will always be winners and losers, when football licences are awarded, but some deals will be harder to get done, when there are more stakeholders involved.
