The meeting was held by the sport’s governing body in Frankfurt, Germany, from July 15 to 17 and was attended by two representatives from each of OFC’s 11 member associations.
Sope was also joined by FIFA Development Officer for Oceania Glenn Turner and New Zealand Football Women’s Development Manager Bev Priestman, who featured in a panel discussion on the opening day.
In total, 600 delegates from around the world converged on Frankfurt for the symposium – timed to coincide with the FIFA Women’s World Cup final – and those present included the key decision-makers from FIFA’s global network of member associations.
Along with guest speakers and invited experts, the symposium delegates looked at various case studies and discussed their experiences of women’s football, with the aim of producing a series of conclusions and recommendations for developing the game over the next four years.
“The main focus was to look at ways in which to increase the participation of women in the game and give them as much opportunity to play as possible,” Sope says.
“If we relate that to Oceania and our situation in the member associations, we need to organise more activities and competitions for all the age-groups, not just the senior teams.”
Several recommendations made by previous symposiums have already been turned into reality by FIFA, for example the setting up of female youth competitions (the U-17 and U-20 Women’s World Cups), the creation of an international match calendar for women, increases in the percentage of FIFA-allocated funds which associations must spend on women’s football, and the creation by FIFA’s member associations and development division of women-specific football development programmes.
This year’s symposium focused on three main themes: improving the structures for women’s football within the member associations, increasing participation and the number of competitions, and promoting the game.
The three days of debate and planning were followed by an opportunity for member associations to discuss their individual situations and ideas with the FIFA development officers responsible for their particular region, which is Christina Cano in the case of Oceania.
“It was very much based on participating rather than just sitting down and listening,” Sope says of the open nature of the symposium.
“It was a good chance for us to meet people from all the other confederations and share our knowledge and experiences with them. The women’s game is not as developed in Oceania as it is in other parts of the world so we need to learn as much as we can.”
Sope believes putting a clear structure in place with particular emphasis on grassroots programmes is the way forward for the female version of the game in the Pacific.
“In a lot of cases within the member associations, we don’t have well-structured clubs offering football for women and that is a problem. Most of our girls don’t start playing in grassroots programmes at all,” she says.
“We have national teams that are just focused on senior players but, prior to that, we don’t have enough youth teams at a grassroots level. All of the OFC representatives at the symposium agreed that we should be focusing on grassroots because that is where women’s football is currently lacking.”
The full list of participants for the FIFA Women’s Football Symposium from the Oceania region was as follows:
Tavita Taumua, Faleuplu Oney (American Samoa), Mii Piri, Jimmy Katoa (Cook Islands), Bob Kumar, Susan Wise (Fiji), Christophe Coursimault, Bina Ramesh (New Caledonia), Nicola Demaine, Shelley McMeeken (New Zealand), Dimirit Mileng, Linda Wonuhali (Papua New Guinea), Toetu Petana, Emily Young (Samoa), Edward Ngava, Maria Rufina (Solomon Islands), Patrice Flaccadori, Eugene Haereraaroa (Tahiti), Lui Langi, Atelaite Tuivailala (Tonga), Fabien Hoeppe, Angela Malas (Vanuatu).