A total of 30 participants are involved in the four-day course and nine of OFC’s 11 member associations are being represented at the Charles J. Dempsey Football Academy.
Among those present are Finau Vulivuli (Fiji) and Lata Tuifutuna (Tonga), who, along with New Zealand’s Jacqui Stephenson, have just made history by becoming the first non-Australia OFC trio to officiate in a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Another trio made up of Peter O’Leary (New Zealand), Ravinesh Kumar (Fiji) and Jackson Namo (Solomon Islands) is also taking part in Auckland and the course holds special significance for these three officials.
They are scheduled to travel to Colombia next week for the FIFA U-20 World Cup but, as is the case with all FIFA tournaments, must first pass a stringent fitness test.
The course has been planned to coincide with this test but FIFA/OFC referee development officer Massimo Raveino says the gathering has many other purposes.
“The main objective is to consolidate the knowledge of the match officials and evaluate their performance in the fitness, technical and theoritical areas,” he says.
“The other aim is to prepare for the upcoming Pacific Games and O-League tournaments. We also have World Cup and Olympic qualifying tournaments coming up so the refereeing department needs to anticipate this and begin our preparations now.”
Japan-based FIFA fitness instructor Toshio Utsumi has travelled to New Zealand to assist in the running of the course, just days after attending the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico.
An OFC match official trio consisting of referee Norbert Hauata (Tahiti) and assistant referees Mark Rule (New Zealand) and David Charles (Papua New Guinea) also took part in Mexico but have been excused from the course.
“They have just returned to their countries and need some to do some rest and recovery,” Raveino says. “They don’t need to come here because they have already been working very hard in Mexico with training and recovery sessions every day.”
Utsumi is responsible for putting O’Leary, Kumar and Namo through their paces in the FIFA fitness test for Colombia 2011 and expects many more OFC officials to be involved in FIFA tournaments in the near future.
“I have been doing this since 2008 and, looking at the past three years, I can definitely see an improvement with the OFC referees compared to the other confederations,” he says.
“Of course, there is always a lot of hard work ahead – it is not easy to reach the calibre of the likes of UEFA and Conmebol because of their resources, history and tradition. But there is always potential and I think Oceania is on the right path.
“With hard work, determination and commitment I’m sure the OFC referees will be just as good, if not better, than the top confederations.”
Fresh from the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, Fijian referee Vulivuli says this week’s course offers a great chance for the participants to broaden their knowledge and hone skills ahead of the upcoming tournaments, all of which are important events on the OFC calendar.
“Every course is a good experience, regardless of which level it is, whether it be run by a member association, OFC or FIFA,” she says.
“You pick up things here and there and it improves your overall ability. We are gearing up for the Pacific Games so it is good to go through the technical laws of the game and make sure everybody is at the same level.”
The course is being run as part of the FIFA-funded Refereeing Assistance Programme (RAP), the success of which can be seen in the increased level of representation for Oceania at international tournaments.
OFC places great importance on developing world-class referees and this has been strongly supported by FIFA through its funding of the programme.
Under the supervision of Raveino, referee instructor Neil Poloso and fitness trainer Kader Touati, the programme is helping to create a more organised, professional approach to refereeing in the Pacific.