OFC News

New Zealand's media, sponsors, local government and football community came together with FIFA last week in an attempt to maximise the legacy left by the forthcoming FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

All four host cities - Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton - staged their own FIFA Com-Unity course as seminars were presented by the likes of Heike Ullrich, the DFB's Head of Women's Football, FIFA Executive Committee Member Harold Mayne-Nicholls, Kelly Simmons, the FA's Head of Football Development and Jurg Nepfer.

Nepfer, FIFA's Head of Development Programmes and selector of instructors, spoke in Auckland to emphasise the scope for New Zealand 2008 creating a legacy that benefits countless Kiwi generations. He said: "Hosting this tournament provides the opportunity to develop new programmes and new partners as well as improve the social recognition of women's football and women in sport. Other benefits will include better sporting infrastructure and improved event management skills."

Nepfur further advised the Local Organsing Committee (LOC) to be prepared for a surge in player participation rates following the tournament. He said: "After New Zealand hosted the inaugural men's FIFA U-17 World Cup in 1999, there was a big boom in the number of young kids who wanted to play. It will no doubt be the same after this year's tournament."

Simmons, one of the most influential figures in English football, fully concurred, and she was able to offer a few suggestons on how to cope with the potential influx of female players. "With the help of funding from the FA, we've been able to employ someone in each region who is devoted to developing the women's game," said Simmons, who is a director of England's FA. "We've also successfully attracted a lot more female coaches and that's been critical."

'Great ideas'
The hosts gained immensely from their guests' knowledge, but it wasn't merely a one-way educational process, as Heike Ullrich, Head of Tournament Organisation for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 explained. "I got great ideas from the LOC and other speakers which I can take back into my job," said Ullrich. "These seminars show it's not just the smaller footballing countries learning from the bigger footballing countries - it can also be the other way around."

Ullrich also praised the LOC for their plan to actively go into New Zealand schools later this year and educate children about a game that has traditionally found itself in the shadow of rugby. She said: "If young boys and girls hear the background and culture of a country playing in their city, they will become connected to that team and go out and support them."

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, President of the Chile Football Federation and in charge of development in South America for FIFA, was similarly impressed by the LOC's plan to give souvenirs and New Zealand information packs to all visiting teams and their staff. He said: "We will look to do something similar at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Chile because it will help boost tourism by attracting people back to our country."

As for the hosts themselves, Chris Simpson, CEO of the LOC, was left to reflect on a hugely successful series of courses. "These seminars foster close cooperation between all stakeholders," he said, "and that's exactly what is needed to run a successful tournament."

Story Courtesy of www.fifa.com

HAMILTON - Organisers of the FIFA U’17 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand later this year are determined that the event will leave "a legacy" of increased playing numbers and profile for the code.

These objectives were spelled out at a seminar hosted by the Local Organising Committee at Waikato Stadium yesterday.

Fifa development officer Glenn Turner noted previous flagship events in New Zealand had come and gone and not left the desired legacy, but organisers were doing all they could to ensure that was not the case on this occasion.

The event runs from October 28-November 16, with Hamilton the venue for one of the groups. The draw will be done on June 1 at Te Papa.
 
Women’s football was touted as "the future of the game" by speakers, because of its enormous potential for growth. Already there are 35,000 females playing in New Zealand, with one in three juniors a girl.

There were hopes the event could double the number of women’s teams in the region.

Turner said the tournament had an economic impact of $26 million.
 
"With figures like that it is very easy to open dialogue with organisations," he said to an audience which included Hamilton city councillors Pippa Mahood, Dave Macpherson, Peter Bos and Maria Westphal.

Fifa Head of Development Programmes and selector of instructors Juerg Nepfer said the close co-operation between stakeholders (such as the city council and clubs) should open further opportunities for the code for improved infrastructure.

He said there was a need for the tournament to be talked about in football circles, to be included in every speech, and for banners to be erected in the city’s streets.

Sky TV will broadcast games, with TV1 doing delayed coverage of key matches, and feeds going to up 160 countries.

Nepfer said there was a need to justify the U17s coming to places like Hamilton.

"The public must feel part of the event."

Heike Ullrich, Germany’s head of women’s football, spoke of her experience in preparing for the women’s World Cup in 2011, and the need for New Zealand to follow a similar lead in arranging for schools to "adopt a country" of one of the teams based in their city.

She said while Russia had provided magnificent facilities in hosting the 2006 Under 20 finals, the grandstands were empty, and the lack of atmosphere illustrated the need for crowds.

"We want full stadiums."

Organisers also want about 1200 volunteers nationally to help.

Tickets for the four Hamilton game days (double headers) plus a quarterfinal will be priced at $30 for adults and $20 for children. Organisers are offering a 10 per cent rebate for clubs selling 50 or more.

Other speakers encouraged fans to make the matches a festive occasion.
 
Club and school representatives attended from Hamilton, Rotorua and Tauranga.

Other parties included Waikato BOP Football, Wintec, council staff, and Chamber of Commerce representatives.

HONIARA - Jovita Qilamasala will create history as the first Solomon Islands Woman referee to officiate in a FIFA sanctioned competition.

The FIFA Refereeing Department nominated OFC women match officials in December 2007 and Oilamasala's name was forwarded along with Fiji's Finau Vulivuli (pictured below, second from right) and New Zealand's Jacqueline Stephenson.

Qilamasala and her colleagues will travel to Portugal in March for the Algarve Cup tournament.

OFC Referees Committee spokesman Massimo Raveino says the tournament will be an opportunity for them to be tested for a potential appointment for the next 2008 FIFA U17 and FIFA U20 World Cup.

Raveino urged participating member associations to assist with the preparations of the three match officials.

"Oceania officials have had a solid run of performances at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada and FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea last year and this consistency has led to Finau, Jovita and Jacqueline's nomination for the FIFA list.

I think this is a wonderful achievement for OFC match officials generally as well as for the three women.

But the hard work starts now, OFC has a growing reputation for providing FIFA with reliable and fit match officials and I extend my congratulations and best wishes to Finau, Jovita and Jacqueline with the exciting challenge ahead of them," Raveino said.

Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) General Secretary Tai Nicholas has confirmed that the Solomon Islands will represent OFC at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Marseille 2008.

“The change in timing of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup from November to July created significant challenges for OFC which prevented a qualifying event being made possible,” said Nicholas.

“Financial constraints of both OFC and participating Member Associations and other factors outside of OFC’s control created uncertainty over a host venue and the availability of participating teams.

“Currently, there is no international standard beach soccer pitch in the region and domestic competition is marginal across Member Associations.”

As a result the OFC Executive Committee agreed to nominate the Solomon Islands as the OFC representatives for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Marseille 2008.

The Solomon Islands were nominated on the back of two years of strong performances in Beach Soccer.

They were crowned OFC Beach Soccer champions in 2006 and 2007 and have performed creditably at both the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup’s in Rio de Janeiro those same years.

FIFA accepted OFC’s nomination on 7 December 2007, and OFC is now committed to assisting the Solomon Islands with preparing a detailed programme in the build up for the tournament.

It is anticipated an OFC qualification event is planned to determine Oceania’s representatives at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2009.  

Solomon Islands record at finals of FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

FIFA BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP - RIO DE JANEIRO 2007

First Stage

Match   Date      Time                                                             Results
2       02 Nov – 11:00                       Brazil                     11 : 2             Solomon Islands
11      04 Nov – 12.30                       Solomon Islands        2 : 5             Russia
20      06 Nov – 14.00                       Solomon Islands        3 : 6             Mexico

FIFA BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP - RIO DE JANEIRO 2006

First Stage

Match   Date                                                                            Results
4       02 Nov                               Solomon Islands            5 : 2            Cameroon
9       07 Nov                               Uruguay                      2 : 5            Solomon Islands
20      06 Nov                               Solomon Islands           2 : 14          Portugal

FIFA BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP QUALIFIER – NEW ZEALAND -2007

            Date                                                                           Results
07 July                                    Vanuatu                         2-3               Solomon Islands
07 July                                  Solomon Islands                 5-3              Tahiti
08 July                                     Solomon Islands              4-3              New Zealand
 
Final
08 July                                     Solomon Islands              5-3              Vanuatu

FIFA BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP QUALIFIER – TAHITI - 2006

            Date                                                                     Results
31 August                     Vanuatu                              9-4                     Solomon Islands
01 September              Solomon Islands                      2-1                     Tahiti
02 September              Solomon Islands                     13-0                    Cook Islands
 
Final
03 September              Solomon Islands                        6-2                   Vanuatu

New Caledonia are one of the world’s biggest movers according to FIFA’s latest world football rankings released yesterday.

The last twelve months have seen over 900 international football fixtures played around the world and New Caledonia have made the third largest leap in points out of all the 201 teams listed in the world rankings.

New Caledonia’s haul of 220 points has seen them jump from 176th spot to 118th, and improvement of 58 places. Their impressive string of results has seen them jump past Tahiti, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Fiji in the OFC rankings and sit in 2nd place behind New Zealand (95th).

In the last year New Caledonia has beaten Fiji, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu with the majority of results coming in FIFA world cup qualifiers.

New Zealand is the only country in OFC to cut the top 100 teams in the world, with the other ten nations falling between 118th (New Caledonia) and 201st (American Samoa). New Zealand were ranked 131 at this time last year and show an improvement of 36 places on the back of an impressive 2-2 draw with Wales and good World cup qualifying form.

The leadership of the world rankings changed six times in the last year with Argentina ending the year in pole position, thus winning the title of ‘Team of the Year’.

In total, 901 international matches were played and taken into account in calculating the ranking. Around another two dozen matches are due to be played before the year is out, the majority in the CECAFA Cup in east Africa. Those fixtures will bring the total for 2007 to about 930, the fourth-highest number of matches in history and the highest ever for a year following a World Cup.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 16 January 2008.

FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings

OCEANIA FOOTBALL CONFEDERATION

Ranking	Zonal Ranking	Team	Points
95	1	New Zealand	349
118	2	New Caledonia	271
124	3	Solomon Islands	250
131	4	Fiji	208
140	5	Vanuatu	175
146	6	Samoa	142
162	7	Tahiti	94
170	8	Tonga	77
183	9	Papua New Guinea	30
200	10	Cook Islands	2
201	11	American Samoa	0

WORLD RANKINGS

Ranking	Team	Points
1	Argentina	1523
2	Brazil	1502
3	Italy	1498
4	Spain	1349
5	Germany	1298
6	Czech Republic	1290
7	France	1243
8	Portugal	1241
9	Netherlands	1170
10	Croatia	1129
11	Greece	1114
12	England	1113
13	Romania	1088
14	Scotland	990
15	Mexico	982
16	Turkey	924
17	Columbia	907
18	Bulgaria	881

YOKOHAMA  - AC Milan beat Boca Juniors 4-2 today to become the first European winners of the FIFA Club World Cup. A double from Filippo Inzaghi and goals from Alessandro Nesta and Kaka earned the Italians a deserved victory at the International Stadium in Yokohama, where a sell-out crowd was treated to a fitting climax to a thrilling tournament.
 
It took Carlo Ancelotti's side 21 minutes to make the breakthrough. Kaka drove at the Boca defence and after his shot was blocked, he instinctively and superbly drove the ball into the path of Inzaghi, who did not require a second invitation to slot the ball home from six yards. From the restart, though, Boca quickly moved the ball up the other end and Rodrigo Palacio nodded home to level the scores.

Play resumed at a frenetic pace following the interval and within five minutes, Nesta's stunning volley restored Milan's advantage. A couple of menacing runs from the lively Kaka threatened to add to their lead, while only the post denied Hugo Ibarra a superb, long-range equaliser.

With Kaka in inspirational form, though, Milan began to dominate proceedings and it was the Brazilian who made it 3-1 just after the hour mark, slotting through the goalkeeper's legs from a tight angle after a purposeful charge down the left flank. The 25-year-old, a candidate to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award at tomorrow's Gala, then supplied a second goal for Inzaghi in the 71st minute.

A Massimo Ambrosini own goal reduced the deficit with time running out, but the day belonged to AC Milan, who succeeded where the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United (both 2000), Liverpool (2005) and Barcelona (2006) had failed.

Story Courtesy of FIFA. For full story go to www.fifa.com

Waitakere United captain Danny Hay is excited to represent Oceania at this year’s FIFA Club World Cup but admits to being a realist ahead of their encounter with Iranian heavyweights Sepahan in Tokyo on December 7th.

“We’re a team full of plumbers, electricians and teachers playing against professional footballers,” said Hay. “But I have tasted FIFA tournaments before and on the day you never know. Hopefully we will do the nation proud.”

The FIFA Club World Cup consists of the champions of each continent and the host nations winner, competing for a total prize pool of 16 million dollars. Last years competition drew more than 300,000 spectators.

Waitakere are guaranteed a $500,000 pay packet for their attendance at the tournament, a figure that will double should they win their opening game.

The Waitakere side was officially welcomed to the tournament today by FIFA delegate John Schumacher on behalf of FIFA president Joseph S Blatter.

Waitakere coach Chris Milicich said he was excited but not overawed by the challenge infront of him.

“It is up to us to ensure that qualification from Oceania to this tournament continues to exist,” said Milicich. “I saw 60,000 screaming fans at the playoff game between the reds (Urawa) and Sepahan but at the end of the day its just 11 v 11. If we do what we can do there are opportunities to get a result.”

Waitakere United will complete a dream run when they play in the tournaments opening game in Tokyo. They were not even qualified for the 2007 Oceania Champions League but a late withdrawal offered them a last minute opportunity to enter the competition. Waitakere then went on to win their group and then the final against Fijian Champions Ba in a home and away series.

Waitakere executive chairman Rex Dawkins described their position among some of the world’s elite as a dream come true.

“It’s a memorable occasion and an exciting time for the club”, said Dawkins. “It’s a dream but if you believe in dreams there comes success at the end.

Hay said that his squad were well aware of how lucky they were to have this opportunity.
“What a chance of a lifetime for our guys. Many of us will never have a chance to be in something like this again.”

The O League champions tournament organised by Oceania was seen as a huge success by Oceania general secretary Tai Nicholas. “The league attracted 60,000 spectators in five countries,” said Nicholas. “The O league is growing in momentum.”

Auckland City were the last Oceania representatives to compete in the club world cup when they were defeated 3-0 by Asian champions Jeonbuk FC and 2-0 by African champions Al Ahly.

OFC Media would like to inform all interested parties that live text updates of the FIFA Women's World Cup - China 2007 are available by selecting the link to your preferred fixture at http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/matches/calendar.html

Streaming footage of match highlights is also available shortly after each fixture, at http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/video/videolist.html

 

 FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP - CHINA 2007

Group D  Match	Date   Time	Venue
7	12/09 17:00	WUHAN		New Zealand		Brazil