Regenass spent several days in Auckland, New Zealand, this week to help conduct a FIFA/OFC Financial Seminar and took the opportunity to assure the Oceania football family of the significance of their relationship with FIFA.
“Although Oceania is far from Zurich geographically, it is always close to our thoughts and each time we think about what we can improve in our programmes, we really take into consideration the case of Oceania,” he says.
“We really want to do our best to work with this confederation for the betterment of football. Of course there are difficulties, but there is a lot of initiative, commitment and will in this region and that makes it a great pleasure for us to work with Oceania. There are a number of events going on next year and I am certain we will be in the region again over the coming months.”
Regenass was joined in leading the two-day seminar – held at the Novotel Hotel near OFC headquarters in Greenlane from November 18 to 19 – by Eva Pasquier, FIFA’s Oceania Development Manager, and FIFA Instructor Anter Isaac, a former manager of finance for Football Federation Australia.
The participants consisted of the general secretaries and finance officers of OFC’s member associations, who were given the chance to further increase their knowledge of the best practices and processes in the financial management of football.
The seminar is part of FIFA’s overall desire to assist in the running and organisation of its member associations and follows the launch in November last year of the FIFA PERFORMANCE programme, a management plan that is being rolled out across the Pacific from 2012 to 2014 and aims to help football’s national governing bodies reach their maximum potential both on and off the field.
“It is always a great pleasure to come here and it was very worthwhile because this time we could go a bit deeper into some fundamental concerns and provide a roadmap on how to solve certain problems,” Regenass says.
“I hope that it will prove useful to all the participants because that is what counts. We will probably focus on a different subject each year so that there can be progress on all fronts. In this case, we have focused on financial processes because it’s essential that there is a sound management upon which you can then build proper football activities, competitions management and so on.”
Regenass recognises the Pacific contains a unique set of challenges but believes these can be partially overcome by the passion of those involved with football throughout the region.
“One of the challenges of Oceania is that it involves great distances and travel is very expensive. That takes up a lot of the resources of the member associations,” he says.
“It is obvious though that there is a clear will, energy and commitment to develop new revenue sources to increase the funding basis. It is important that there is also good planning and management of the finances so that you can go further with the dollars you are investing.”
OFC General Secretary Tai Nicholas was in attendance for the seminar and says the confederation is grateful for the involvement of the FIFA representatives.
“Their roles are all very demanding so for them to spend several days here with us really acknowledges the great support FIFA has for Oceania,” he says.
“OFC has made great strides in recent years and is on the verge of many further significant undertakings in all areas. The support of FIFA will be a vital part of these developments as we look to continue our rate of progress.”
Many of the participants who attended the FIFA/OFC Financial Seminar have stayed on in Auckland to take part in a Legal and CEO Workshop at OFC headquarters from November 20 to 21. The workshop is being led by instructors from the Royal Spanish Football Federation and was made possible due to the federation’s memorandum of understanding with OFC.

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