General Secretariat
The OFC General Secretariat is responsible for implementing and executing the decisions of the OFC Executive Committee. It is an enthusiastic team made up of six departments including finance, technical, competitions, social responsibility, media, and TV. The General Secretariat also has close interaction with each of the 11 Member Associations across the Pacific.
The OFC General Secretariat is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
To contact the OFC General Secretariat please email: [email protected] or phone +64 9 531 4096.
General Secretary
OFC General Secretary Franck Castillo was appointed in July 2018 after holding the role in an acting capacity since February of the same year.
Formerly the Head of Social Responsibility and International Relations, he came to the Oceania Football Confederation in large part because of the Just Play Programme.
With a Master of Communication Administration and Marketing, Castillo was working in France as a hotel manager before relocating to Tahiti where he continued working in hotel management on Moorea.
Although he wasn’t looking for it, a new challenge soon came knocking on Castillo’s door which is where his journey into sport for development began.
Castillo became CEO of a Youth Confederation in Tahiti, working closely with the national government in the development of a new social programme for youth. He then took on the organisation of the Pacific Youth Festival in 2006.
This event was the first of its kind in the region, bringing together 27 Pacific countries to identify social issues effecting youth in those counties, and to come up with active solutions. Following the Pacific Youth Festival, Castillo helped present the first Pacific Youth Charter to the UNESCO Assembly in 2007.
Two years later, Castillo was brought in to head up the OFC Social Responsibility department. The main task was to get the grassroots Just Play Programme up and running firstly in several pilot nations, and eventually across the region.
He also continued to focus on youth development, taking on the challenging role of CEO of the Pacific Youth and Sport Conference in 2010 and 2013, which aimed to promote using sport as a social development tool and engage youth to be the people driving this change.
The success of Castillo’s time in social responsibility is reflected in the OFC Just Play Programme which is now active in all 11 OFC Member Associations, as well as India, and the strong links to UNICEF Pacific and the UEFA Foundation for Children which he helped establish.
Since taking over as General Secretary, Castillo has continued to advocate for gender equality and female empowerment, while balancing a workload which has included an overhaul of the governance and financial procedures of the Confederation.