With the women’s game reaching new milestones in Oceania in 2024 and the game going from strength to strength globally, we catch up with FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer Dame Sarai Bareman.
Technically, Switzerland-based Sarai Bareman should remain neutral.
But just mention Samoa’s Women’s U-17 side qualifying for next year’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup™- the very first time a Samoan national team had qualified for a FIFA World Cup at any level – and FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer is unable to suppress a wide smile.
“It’s a dream come true,” she says.
“The buzz that it created in Samoa has been immense.
“The pride of the entire country getting behind that group of U-17 girls has been amazing, and you can imagine next year, come the World Cup, that the country will come alive.”
Watching the Samoan teens celebrate their milestone reminds Bareman of aspects of her own journey, both in life and in football. Especially for those born or raised in the United States and New Zealand, for whom representing the 685 was a powerful and emotional reconnection to their family and homeland.
“I have a Samoan mum but I grew up and was born and raised in New Zealand. There was a long time in my upbringing where I felt quite disconnected from my roots and what it really means to be a Samoan.
“If I think about my own journey and career in football, it started in Samoa. My first job was a finance officer for the federation there. I played for the national team at a time where the national team basically played no games, I played club football in Samoa and I had a hand in developing the sport of football across that country. I really saw and fell in love with football because of that journey I had in Samoa,” she remembers.
“It’s through these opportunities that so many of those young girls who are growing up in the United States or Australia will be able to connect back to their roots and where they come from and really get that understanding of what it means to be representing Samoa and to be a Samoan,” she reflects.
“To see them qualify for their first ever World Cup, not a men’s team but a women’s team and a youth women’s team at that, is absolutely incredible. I’m so excited for Samoa, for those girls, for those athletes and obviously I will do everything I can to support them in their journey towards that World Cup next year.”
Having walked the path herself from working at Football Federation Samoa to OFC, to then joining FIFA’s reform committee in 2015 and ascending to her current role in late 2016, Bareman is acutely conscious of the context and challenges facing the game’s development in Oceania.
Being in Aotearoa New Zealand recently for the Women’s Football Conference 2024, which brought together the region’s women’s development officers and social development managers, Bareman has relished “reconnecting” with the game in Oceania and “some familiar faces here that I haven’t seen for a long time.”
Maintaining her close ties to women’s football in the region is key for her mission at FIFA, ensuring that the work her team does is aligned to the realities of developing the women’s game throughout the world.
“For me, it’s a new context because of this role that I’m in at FIFA,” she explains.
“When I listen to the stories, the challenges, the successes, I can immediately think ‘OK, what do I need to do to support? How can I adjust my approach?’”
Her message to others working in the women’s game in Oceania is simple.
“You might be one person, maybe two if you’re lucky, or a small department in one of our associations here in the Pacific, but never feel like you’re alone and don’t hesitate to knock on the door because so much support is available.
“You literally have a massive team of people who have your back and are here to support you, from FIFA, from the Oceania Football Confederation. We’ve all been on a path, we’re all on a journey, we share the same challenges, we share the same successes as well.
“When one country does well from Oceania, it really is the pride for all of us.”
Photo credit: OFC Media via Phototek