The OFC U-20 Championship ran from 21-29 March in Fiji with two Stage 3 FIFA World Cup qualifiers falling smack bang in the middle and including four different matches held in four different countries on the 22 and 24 March. The OFC Champions League got underway on 30 March with four matches in four different countries and continued throughout April with 11 Match Days, at least three of which fell during the OFC U-17 Championship held in Vanuatu from 17-25 April.
Head of the OFC Competitions Department David Firisua says there are 59 match officials across the Oceania region, of which 44 are FIFA accredited – and that’s just men. There are also ten female FIFA accredited referees within Oceania and the list continues to grow every year.
While referee appointments are made by the OFC referee department with Firisua and his team charged with the organisation of all OFC events their recommendations come into play and he says it isn’t as easy as picking from a list with a number of factors coming into consideration.
“There are 11 member associations in our confederation, six different time zones and there is a minimum of nine different airlines that we use. All of this has to be taken into consideration when appointments are done,” Firisua says.
“The visa situation is also at the forefront of our minds when we are making appointments.”
With several Pacific countries requiring visas for entry, and Australia even requiring some passengers to obtain transit visas the task becomes even more difficult.
Based on a loose rotation process, appointments also take into account the level of the event, experience and neutrality. An effort is also made to try and keep OFC’s top performing trios, such as the trios of Tahiti’s Norbert Hauata and New Zealand’s Peter O’Leary, together.
On top of all that, referees are real people with real jobs who officiate as a hobby – which means appointments must also fit around their jobs and family.
With jobs that range from civil servants, policemen and nurses to teachers, carpenters, physiotherapists and bankers, getting time off to attend an 11-day tournament may not always be possible.
Firisua says working around all of these factors makes referee appointments a bit like trying to complete a Sudoku puzzle, especially while at the same time trying to maintain a high standard of officiating.
“At the end of the day these are real people who work in a professional field and are expected to perform at FIFA level at all times. You have to take into account every aspect of their lives as well as the needs of the confederation,” he says.
Solomon Islands referee John Richardson Sa’ohu is a registered nurse who works as an infection control assistant at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, a job he has held for more than 20 years.
A FIFA accredited referee since 2008 Sa’ohu says the first half of 2013 was incredibly full-on as he covered the U-17 competition in Vanuatu and numerous Champions League matches around the region.
While in Vanuatu there had also been an outbreak of dengue fever in the Solomon Islands which meant being away from his job for an extended period was more difficult than ever.
“It’s quite challenging to get out of work as we have to get permission from our bosses. You have to leave work and leave your family. Coming to an event like the U-17 is good, but two weeks is a long time. Then you are called out to do the Champions League matches as well and it gets pretty full-on as you have to go somewhere else,” he says.
“I had to go from home to Santo for the U-17 for a couple of days, then to Port Vila for the Amicale vs. Hekari match and then they asked me to Tahiti for the Saturday game but I didn’t have a visa so I couldn’t do that one.”
Sa’ohu says all the travelling and the requirements for visas for certain countries can be quite complicated at times.
“Visa wise, it would be advisable if the visa could be arranged for more than just one year, as it is now. I think it would reduce the number of problems we have now where we have to apply every year for Australia and New Zealand.”
However despite the challenges Sa’ohu says refereeing isn’t something he plans to give up in a hurry.
“I think one thing that really keeps me going is that it keeps you fit. There are weeks or months where you stop training, but then you have to pick it up again and continue to be fit enough to pass the fitness tests.
“It’s a commitment we make for the love of ‘the beautiful game’.”

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