The 52-year-old Frenchman was on-site with a delegation from FIFA as guests of the OFC President David Chung.
“Today it’s an important day we are making decisions to see a realisation. It’s the first step of a 20-month period when finally in May 2015 we’ll all be back in New Zealand to open this new home of Oceania.
“I think it’s very important as it’s not only the home of the 11 Member Associations, but also a place with two football pitches and a place for young people to practice our game, our sport.
“And as you know, there is no football without youth development,” Valcke said.
Also present were representatives of the Ngati Whatua iwi, Auckland Council, Orakei Local Board chair Desley Simpson, National MP Nikki Kaye, Oceania Player of the Century Wynton Rufer and members of the OFC executive committee and general secretariats.
Valcke, who arrived in Auckland yesterday, said FIFA’s new tailor-made development programmes would be rolled out in Oceania with great optimism, and the FIFA/OFC Development Seminar being held over this weekend is part of the education process.
“I think since 2007 what we have tried to do is not look at the world but look at the specificity of each of the confederations, of each of the Member Associations, and Oceania is the best example. We’ve moved from Financial Assistance Programmes and Goal Programmes to tailor-made programmes.
“We’ve worked with Oceania to work with their Member Associations and I think the best examples we have of this is the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup hosted by New Zealand, the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup also to be held here and also the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti this month,” he said.
Valcke also acknowledged Tahiti and New Zealand’s relatively recent forays onto the world stage as further evidence of progress.
“Tahiti qualified for the Confederations Cup in June and the All Whites, the national team of New Zealand, qualified for the 2010 World Cup and who I hope will qualify for 2014.
“We’re not asking Oceania to deliver the same as South America or Europe, but we ask OFC to work with us to develop football in the region, to reach the values of football and the values of football are not just to play at the FIFA World Cup.”
“That (the FIFA World Cup) is the pinnacle of football. But we must also make sure football is used for education, for health, because football is more than just a game.”
Valcke’s concrete assessment of the state of Oceanian football is coloured by a sincere hope the region can perhaps one day have direct entry to the FIFA World Cup.
“If at every FIFA World Cup we could have one team from Oceania, it’s a dream sure, but I know it will be a discussion once at FIFA why Oceania has not got a full slot for the World Cup,” Valcke said.
Part of the realisation of that dream is the reality that Oceania still has much work ahead of itself to develop and improve its football.
One element of this process is the demand for greater transparency of Member Associations in the Development Programme after a rigourous reform process in Zurich.
Valcke says the motivation for change and closer scrutiny has unfolded naturally rather than due to external pressures.
“It’s not just because the world is asking us to do so, it’s because we have to recognise whenever you give something you have to make sure that the use of what you give is the best.
“That is what we are trying to do. It’s not a revolution it’s an evolution of our regulations. An evolution of how we approach the different situations.
“It’s to make sure we do it in a transparent way, that when you give $1USD it’s used at 100 per cent of its purpose and that it’s not misused.
“I’m not talking about corruption. I’m talking about maximising the investment, maximising the financial support we give the Member Associations and Confederations.
“So it’s a creation of trust but it’s also again to make it sure it works the best and that’s the goal.
“It’s not to create regulations for the fun of it, or to please the media by saying we have a system that is stronger than any other company, or any other federations. We have the highest level of structure in order to fight for compliance or against corruption.
“Instead it’s more to make sure we give support they need to the Member Association to be safe in the way they perceive the money of FIFA.”