OFC and UEFA will work together in the areas of football management within the OFC Capacity Building Programmes. Photo: Pau Barrena - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and UEFA have launched a groundbreaking three-year partnership to work together in the areas of football management within the OFC Capacity Building Programmes, and on football development with OFC Under-15 tournaments.
OFC said the parternship was launched at a workshop in Düsseldorf, Germany, held alongside Euro 2024.
It said within the Football Management scope of the partnership, a workshop was held on 17 and 18 June in Düsseldorf to kick start the collaboration.
In a joint effort, content was delivered by the UEFA Academy team and experts, together with the OFC team and the general secretaries of UEFA member associations Wales (Noel Mooney), Malta (Angelo Chetcuti), Faroe Islands (Kristin Dam Ziska) and the president of Concacaf member association Bermuda (Mark Wade).
The workshop focused on exploring the theme of high-performance leadership and high-performance member associations. Sessions were designed with an innovative and interactive approach, allowing a lot of peer-to-peer exchange.
OFC participants included the chief executives of the Fiji Football Association Mohammed Yusuf, Tonga Football Association, Lui 'Aho, Samoa Football Association, Ronna Lee, Solomon Islands Football Association, Leonard Paia, and Federation Tahitienne de Football's Moeama Mu-Greig.
The participants saw the added value of the partnership already being impacted positively with these initial interactions.
Yusuf said the workshop was very beneficial "as the programmes were interactive, which showed active participation from all."
"There were great learnings in terms of workload and delegation," he added.
Yusuf said Fiji Football is implementing a high-performance culture.
"The process was already started for us after our restructure. This session has enabled me to focus on understanding the workload of each HOD and create an atmosphere of appreciation and rewarding," Yusuf said.
This is just the beginning of a three-year collaboration with UEFA and more initiatives will follow.
-OFC