The meeting was held at OFC headquarters and included the following attendees: OFC President David Chung, Senior Vice President Martin Alufurai, Vice President Lee Harmon, Treasurer Dr. Muhammed Shams-UD-Dean Sahu Khan, Executive Members Fred de Jong, Lambert Maltock, Toetu Petana, observer Alex Godinet, General Secretary Tai Nicholas and general secretariat staff.
It was the first gathering of the Executive Committee since the opening meeting of the year in February and OFC President David Chung began by updating the members on the progress of his ‘First 100 Days’ of office initiative. In alignment with the OFC Vision 2018, the 100-day plan aims to achieve certain milestones in key areas, many of which have been completed or are currently being carried out.
Attention then turned to finance and administration matters, during which the annual audited accounts for 2010 were approved. The accounts showed an $11 million turnover with an operating surplus of $975,930.
Decisions were also made on a range of OFC competitions and other matters before the Executive Committee members confirmed their support for President Blatter in the upcoming FIFA elections.
For the full list of outcomes see below.
The OFC Executive Committee:
– Approved the annual audited accounts for 2010.
– Agreed that the format of the O-League will change from the 2011-12 season. The two New Zealand clubs will be placed in different groups – one will be drawn with the club champions of Fiji, New Caledonia and Tahiti while the other will compete in the second group with the champions of Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
– No preliminary tournament for the 2011-12 O-League will be played. Instead, the champion teams from American Samoa, Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga will take part in a pilot stand-alone tournament. It is proposed that this competition will in future seasons become a preliminary tournament with the winner qualifying to play off for a place in the O-League.
– A proposal to revive the OFC Nations Cup for 2012, which involved the All Whites and five of the Pacific Island nations, was deferred to 2015. Instead, a Pacific Cup (involving the top five teams from the 2011 Pacific Games and possibly the New Zealand Olympic team) will be held in February 2012.
– Agreed that there would be no change to the FIFA World Cup qualification process. New Zealand will play off with the three top-placed teams from the 2011 Pacific Games to find Oceania’s representative. The play-off series will start in June 2012.
– Agreed to support the re-election of FIFA President Joseph Blatter due to the range of initiatives that have positively impacted the region under his leadership.
The next OFC Executive Committee meeting will be held during the 2011 Pacific Games in Noumea, New Caledonia between the dates of August 27 and September 10.