Claude Fournier is the President of the Federation de Football Nouveau Caledonienne and OFC Treasurer. He was elected to the president’s position in March of 2000 and has made great
progress in the game in his native land.
Fournier was instrumental in New Caledonia joining OFC as a full member association and recently saw the island of 220,000 inhabitants perform with distinction at the OFC U-20 Men’s
Championship – New Zealand 2007.
The inclusion of New Caledonia’s champion club in the inaugural 2007 OFC O-League competition provided further encouragement that football is progressing positively in the
territory.
New Caledonia is making some big progress and they have just picked up a major sponsorship deal for the forthcoming seasons with Nestle and Toyota
OFC had a chance to sit down with Fournier and ask him about recent developments.
How did the deal with Nestle and Toyota sponsorship come about?
Since the results we achieved from the Community course, we managed to create great awareness amongst the private partners in our region. Since our success at the South pacific games
in achieving a gold medal there has been a large rise in interest for football in this country.Our development plan is not only to develop and play football but also to use football as an education
tool amongst the youth. We want to give something to the Caledonian youth and this has encouraged the private partners to invest in football.
How will the money make a difference?
The sponsorship is not about making a difference, but it will certainly help the youth because it now means that they can
do activities which weren’t feasible before because of lack of money. Let’s not forget that in NCL, there are many different level of football, from grassroots to youth to senior, U13, U15, U18,
U20, Woman, Futsal, right up to the Super League. There are also a lot of tournaments so this partnership will help a lot, in terms of assisting financially towards clubs. The more sponsors we
have, the more activities we can carry out and develop football.
Who will be responsible in the Federation for managing this relationship?
Within the FCF, we have recruited someone who is qualified (Gregory Crenn). He will
be working closely with Jean-Paul Salvatore (GS of FCF) who together will manage all the sponsorship
How long is the term of contract for?
Toyota – 4 years
Nestle – 1 year, extensible. FCF thinks that Nestle will extend this contract
How will the sponsorship work in relation to technical development, womens football, grassroot development?
We have requested that all the departments analyse
their needs and programmes and we will evaluate the costs involved and where the money should go. Until now our activities have been financially limiting. If we want to have a strong technical
department program or any other department, we need a strong administration to carry these activities out. We will be very organized and the sponsorship will be supervised from OFC, FIFA, as well
as from private partners.There is a necessity to have a strong administration so that we can easily manage the funds given to each department, whether technical department, women, youth, Futsal,
beach soccer etc.
Will en NCL Super ligue (national league) receive any benefits?
Yes the Super Ligue will receive benefits, not financially, but it will help the organisation
of the league. For example in the final phase (play offs) it will help with the transport. Getting everyone around for the tournament is a lot to organize especially when you have to gather the
winner of the main island and the winner of the other islands. The aim also of this is to attract lots of spectators, as last year, for the first time, there were 5,000 spectators coming to single
games.
What other sponsorship initiatives has NCL got in the fire? If any?
Yes, we have a partnership with Arc-en-Ciel, a transport company, but we are convinced that more partners will join us as a result of the partnership with Nestle and Toyota, and the result of the
NCL. The local authorities are willing to help sport grow, in particularly footbal. There is a law about sponsorship where anyone having a sponsor with sport, will benefit from particular taxation.
So this is very interesting to every company and to us, since football is very popular, played everywhere with everyone. We do hope that it will benefit a lot to us.
Have you been pleased with the Super Ligue standard to date?
Yes I’ve been very pleased. We’ve tried to gather all the best players in NCL. The only handicap
we have is to incorporate the players from the islands (1st step), and the cost is huge just in terms of transport. To organise games between the islands and the main island (grande terre), the
cost per match is CFP 400,000.This is a huge cost. So we’re trying to organise this Super Ligue in 2 steps which allows in the 1st step to play 14 games for all teams, and to add 6 games, then the
tournament will have 20 games home/away for several months of tournament
Can you comment on Didier Chambaron’s influence on NCL football?
Didier Chambaron is a very competent person, he works hard and is very discreet. Although he
is usually very calm, he knows the right time to get angry with his team, to explain and share his football knowledge. We have seen him several times during the competitions, whether in SPG, the
qualifying WC.I’ve known him a little bit, before he join the FCF, he was the coach for AS Baco then went back to France. When we decided that we need someone to coach the teams, I was very pleased
that he applied for this position. He is very a good person, gives a lot to the NCL football. He’s probably a permanent staff, but he does help a lot.
What are your thoughts on the NCL matches with NZL – can NCL cause an upset?
We have just finished the stage where we had the games vs Fiji with pretty good
results. We managed to draw the first one 0-0 then won the second one. Our next game is against Vanuatu, a team that we should not disregard. The games against New Zealand will be a good
challenge. NZL teams are above all other teams. They have a team full of players that play in Europe, and also a team which plays in the A league. It’s a team better organised than ours, better
equipped, but that’s not saying that we will lose. We will do our best for that game, and not focus on keeping the statistics. If we beat NZL, that’s a big achievement. Our long term goal is to get
our players playing at a higher standard than they currently are and then they can learn from those types of games with other teams in the region. What is interesting is that we should, within OFC,
have at least 4 good teams above NZL. This is good also for Oceania football to have other teams than NZL.
Our President should be proud later to tell his FIFA Colleague that in Oceania, there are different teams, not only one team (NZL)