FIFA General Secretary Dr. Urs Linsi arrived at the OFC Strategic Workshop in Bora Bora, Tahiti today and paid tribute to the work of OFC President Reynald Temarii and OFC General Secretary Tai Nicholas.
Tai Nicholas said Dr. Linsi’s presence was an opportunity to demonstrate ideas of how the OFC wants to operate itself as a confederation and to emphasise the growing levels of professionalism in its management structures.
Dr. Linsi complimented the OFC on its slogan “An Ocean of Solidarity” stating it encapsulated and expressed the spirit of FIFA’s own democratic processes.
“Within FIFA, every member is considered equally. In politics and the world of economics, perhaps this is not always the case. Within FIFA all members have the same right and same duties. OFC is a confederation within this framework on merit. When full confederation status was conferred to the OFC in 1996, it was with a clear `yes’ and that makes the OFC of the same importance as any other confederation.”
Dr. Linsi said the presence of OFC personnel on a range of FIFA committees reflected the high level of professional abilities amongst its representatives. He said OFC’s key challenge was to achieve results on the football pitch but added that countries such as Solomon Islands were starting to prove themselves as “a really traditional football nation” with their success at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2006 and their creditable performances against Australia in their last FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.
Also present during Dr. Linsi’s address were Mr. Geoffrey Thompson, Chairman of the FA, Ms. Jane Bateman, FA Head of International Relations, Mr. Marios Lekaritis, Vice-President of UEFA, and Mr. Lars-Christer Olsson, CEO of UEFA and FFF Deputy General Secretary, Mr. Andre Prevosto and Mr. Fernand Duchaussoy President of the FFF Amateur League.
During the workshop, OFC President, Reynald Temarii said OFC’s commitment to using football as a tool for social development and education had seen a number of agreements made with various UN agencies. He said it was an area of development that OFC had not previously entered into in the previous 38 years of its history.
He said OFC was the first sporting organisation in the region to engage organisations such as the UN and that the benefits to football and education and nurturing social development were many.
“Our aim to develop football must work in with the communities that make up our football family. Now that football is accepted as a tool for education by schools in the region, we are able to schedule tournaments to coincide with school holidays with the co-operation of governments. Kids can now go to these tournaments and we are not fighting with school programme but complimenting it. This is important.”
Mr. Temarii said relationships with the EU and the New Zealand government were the first of its kind and designed to work on public health issues within the OFC region.
Dr. Linsi complimented OFC’s good work in securing relationships with governments and non-government agencies “as long as the autonomy of sport &091;to make its own decisions&093; is not touched. It is important to defend absolutely the autonomy of football.”