Losiel spoke to oceaniafootball.com on the effect those reforms might have on the Oceania region and the development programmes currently underway and planned for the future in OFC’s 11 Member Associations.
What advantages of the new development programme regulations will there be specifically for this region?
It should bring more transparency in the way the FIFA funds are invested for a start, which is quite important, and accountability. It’s a way to secure the investment we are doing as an organisation dedicated to football development.
How has the reform process changed the way development programmes are structured and implemented?
In Oceania, as you see with the new regulations, you have a lot of interaction between governance matters and development matters. Basically if you don’t comply with governance fundamentals it’s difficult to get access to the funds. So, in terms of governance fundaments we are speaking about the general assembly and being able to provide all of the minutes to FIFA, being able to present in front of all of your stakeholders your financial results – loss, profit and the balance sheet. We believe that information will bring some credibility to the Member Associations in the way they are investing in football development. It’s going to change things, I think we will have a period of transition of two or three years. In the end our objective is to make sure that the Member Association will comply because we want them to take advantage of the development as that’s the main objective. We are getting there and that has been one of the main requests of the reforms – accountability, transparency and improvement of the impact.
In terms of the engagement from the Member Associations, what are you expecting from them as you roll the programme out?
First they have to have a full understand of what is at stake and I don’t know exactly how it’s going to be, but they will have to comply with what is decided. I think it’s a challenge, especially in this region, but I do believe that in all the Member Associations they have the competent staff in order to fulfil the obligation and we will do everything that we can through our different services and programmes to help them to be ready for the deadline – and this is our commitment.
How will you support them and help them to become ready for that deadline?
We have different tools, I would say, that were presented during the workshop. First, information and education and we have been working on a few things such as sending circulars, we have been in the Congress doing awareness about it, we are working to create special programmes for the weakest members or the ones which are at risk. One option we are looking at doing is specific seminars with the member associations who could struggle to comply with the regulations. Basically we will use all the tools possible and all the means possible to have the member associations ready. Of course the work is not done only by FIFA. You have to have the goodwill of the member association, but if there is the goodwill then they are the member and we are committed to do as much as possible for them to be ready.
You mentioned some of the less privileged Member Associations, do you have anything specific you can tell us about how you plan to support them?
A pilot fund was approved at the end of 2011 for the period 2012-2014. This specific fund will be dedicated to improving football facilities and more specifically field of play. Field of play is a great concern. We want the MAs to have decent facilities in order to play, the accessibility to field of play is quite important and the more you have football facilities, the more you have people capable of playing. The better the conditions of the field, the better the quality of improvement in the players will be and the pleasure of the spectators too. But this less privileged fund is quite important because it’s also a way to target or dedicate specific programmes to make sure that we are always reducing the gap between the strongest and the weakest associations, which is also one of the objectives of FIFA. The development approach is also to bring some solidarity into this world of football.
Oceania has some particular challenges in terms of population density and spread – how difficult has it been coming up with a fair and equitable programme while taking those challenges into consideration?
On that, there is reflection at the moment at FIFA because we are completely aware that the member associations, and in Oceania in particular considering the distance, have to spend a fortune in order to be able to play at international competitions. Nothing has been approved but there is discussion to around having specific support to allow Member Associations to participate despite the logistics and rising costs. Here it’s quite a big cost and we have to be aware, but it’s not only Oceania which faces this particular challenge. In Africa there are certain areas where getting the connecting flights is not that easy and people have to go to Europe in order to go back to Africa again. This is a concern which we are taking into account.

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