The inaugural course was hosted by OFC for three days from August 2 and was conducted by Stuart Larman, manager of the FIFA Playing Surfaces Programme, and FIFA artificial turf consultant Dr Eric Harrison.
Also in attendance were OFC natural turf consultant Laurie Stubbing, representatives from artificial turf manufacturers TigerTurf and TEAM Sports – both accredited licensees of the FIFA Quality Concept – and Acousto-Scan Sports Surface Testing, as well as delegates from the International Rugby Board (IRB).
The experts passed on their knowledge and experience during a series of presentations to the participants, who included two representatives from each of OFC’s 11 member associations.
Various playing surface courses have been held in other parts of the world by FIFA before but Larman says this week’s seminar is the first of its kind.
“This is a trial to see how it works,” he says. “We’ve done some turf maintenance seminars in the past but they have always been linked to other projects. And this is the first time we’ve presented artificial and natural turf maintenance content together in the same seminar.”
Larman says there is a great need to stage such courses and believes the importance of proper pitch maintenance cannot be underestimated.
“If you don’t have good playing surfaces you can’t develop good players and you don’t encourage people to play – it’s as simple as that. And if you’re carrying out good maintenance then you get a longer life out of your facility.”
It’s not often that the round and oval ball codes come together but Larman says joining forces with the IRB made perfect sense on this occasion.
“We’ve done a joint presentation with the International Rugby Board because they have a similar standard to us, their standard is in fact based on ours,” he says.
“We feel it’s important, especially in the Oceania region where both sports are strong, and in some cases rugby is a bit stronger, to make sure everyone is informed that there’s actually one standard for artificial turf.
“Obviously, the playing surface is critical to developing football in any country. Whether the goal is to develop the elite side of the game or grassroots football, the essential thing is to have a strategy in place and good playing surfaces.”
FIFA development officer for Oceania Glenn Turner was instrumental in bringing the seminar to this part of the world and Larman says there has already been interest from other confederations.
“We know of people who are really keen to do this so I’m sure there will be a strong demand. We haven’t even pushed it yet, once we start to promote the seminar I think people will respond quickly. It’s something we will definitely look to take around the world.”
The chief executive officers from almost all of OFC’s member associations attended the historic seminar and were largely accompanied by a groundsman or facilities manager from their respective countries.
Football Federation Samoa acting CEO Sarai Bareman was pleased to be able to attend and took on board a lot of information to bring back to her homeland.
“It was very helpful to see exactly what goes into maintaining a field and bringing it up to a good standard,” she says.
“As an administrator, I know all about running the office but, in terms of the fields and facilities, I have very little knowledge. That’s what I was hoping to get out of this course – to find out a bit more. Our groundsman is always talking to me about what we need so now I will have a better understanding of what he is saying.”