Referees Anna-Marie Keighley, Chris Kerr and Glen Lochrie will officiate in the men’s and women’s football competitions at the Games, which kick off in Nouméa tomorrow and run until September 9.
The Kiwis are delighted to have been given the opportunity to control matches outside of their homeland and Keighley, one of the country’s leading female officials, can’t wait for the tournament to begin.
“This is my first time visiting any of the islands as a referee so it’s a bit of a new experience,” she says.
“I’ve done OFC events plenty of times before but they’ve only been based in New Zealand. It’s very exciting to get out of the country and experience a different environment in the islands and see how things are done throughout the rest of Oceania. There are a lot of other nations involved in OFC and it’s nice to finally be refereeing in one.”
Keighley and her colleagues are three of 27 match officials selected for the event and nine of OFC’s 11 member associations are represented in that contingent. Seven of the officials are female – Keighley is joined by Stephanie Minan (Papua New Guinea), Tupou Patia (Cook Islands), Jovita Qilimasala (Solomon Islands), Lata Tuifutuna (Tonga), Finau Vulivuli (Fiji) and Wanting Yangum (Papua New Guinea) – and they will be in for a busy time taking charge of the 20 women’s matches.
Keighley’s focus is now on refereeing the female game but she has experience as an assistant referee in the ASB Premiership, the highest level of men’s football in New Zealand.
“There is a big difference in terms of the pace and structure of the games,” the 29-year-old says of the contrast between men’s and women’s football.
“It was interesting to see the differences in the fouls. There are more professional fouls with the men because they actually try to break up the play by fouling rather than just committing careless offences.”
She says earning the respect of the male players was not an issue.
“If you’re not up with the play they’ll give you a bit of stick but, at that level, they generally hold their tongues because they know the referees are going to be hard on them if they say anything.”
The teacher hails from Taranaki but has now made the move to Auckland, a change she says was motivated primarily by football reasons.
“The top women’s football in the country is based in Auckland so to get involved with that was a good idea,” she says. ” I could referee men’s football but I will only progress internationally in women’s football and their game is slightly different.”
Keighley hopes that progression will one day lead to postings at the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Olympic Games.
“My initial goal was next year’s Olympics but I still need to get a trio together so that might not be realistic. But the next Women’s World Cup in 2015 and then the 2016 Olympics are definitely goals that I can work towards. The World Cup would be amazing and the Olympics would just be the icing on the cake.”
XIV Pacific Games match officials
Andrew ACHARI (FIJ)
Isidore Desire ASSIENE-AMBASSA (FRA)
Paul AHUPU (TAH)
Noel BERRY (SOL)
Bertrand BILLON (NCL)
George BRUCE (VAN)
Rakesh CHANDRA (FIJ)
David CHARLES (PNG)
Ruilly ERMANEL (NCL)
Didier HMUZO (NCL)
Averii JACQUES (TAH)
Michael JOSEPH (VAN)
Anna-Marie KEIGHLEY (NZL)
Chris KERR (NZL)
Glen LOCHRIE (NZL)
Tevita MAKASINI (TGA)
Stephanie MINAN (PNG)
Gerald OIAKA (SOL)
Tupou PATIA (COK)
Terry PIRI (COK)
Jovita QILIMASALA (SOL)
Lata TUIFUTUNA (TGA)
Rakesh VARMAN (FIJ)
Finau VULIVULI (FIJ)
Noel XOLAWAWA (NCL)
Wanting YANGUM (PNG)
Kader ZITOUNI (TAH)

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