The pair are among 52 people hailing from 46 different countries who have been selected to take part in an initial referee workshop in Zurich from September 24 to 28.
Secondary school science teacher O’Leary has significant experience at top-level tournaments including officiating at several age-group FIFA World Cups and FIFA Club World Cups, as well as attending the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa where he did not get the chance to referee a match but acted as a fourth official. He was, however, the man in the middle for Uruguay’s Group A win over United Arab Emirates in the Men’s Football Tournament at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Hauata is a regular face at OFC tournaments – including in the recent Stage 3 FIFA World Cup qualifiers – and also oversaw two matches at the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico.
If successful in being confirmed for Brazil 2014, O’Leary will be joined by assistant referees Mark Rule of New Zealand and Tevita Makasini of Tonga, while Hauata will bring Jan Hendrick Hintz of New Zealand and Ravinesh Kumar of Fiji with him.
In his opening speech at the Zurich meeting, Head of the FIFA Refereeing Department Massimo Busacca called upon his wealth of experience as a former world-class referee and gave an overview of the forthcoming tests and the content of the seminar, as well as plans for the coming months as far as Brazil 2014 is concerned.
“It is important to underline that this is an open list,” he explained.
“It is like a national team, and we’re the FIFA national team. Those referees who are not here today need to know that they can still make it, while others can always drop out of the group. We want to have the best referees available at the 2014 World Cup.”
The 43-year-old underlined what an honour it is to take part in a FIFA World Cup.
“Seize the opportunity – they don’t tend to come along very often in a referee’s career. In fact, this morning I was wondering whether I ought to make a comeback for 2014,” he said with a wry smile.
This week will see the referees become attuned to the specificities of FIFA tournaments, since FIFA World Cups see teams from different countries and different cultures pitted against one another, unlike what happens in the domestic game. This will be a new sensation for those in the elite group looking to make their FIFA World Cup debuts but an experienced team of instructors will be looking after the referees both this week and throughout the next two years on the road to Brazil.
Once this seminar is over, the next few months will focus on communication and observation.
All 52 referees will officiate at FIFA tournaments in 2013 and be monitored by the FIFA Referee Team in their national confederations. A second seminar will then be held at the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013, before a final one the following year.