The Oceania Football Confederation held an Extraordinary Congress on 21 November 2018 during which it adopted new statutes endorsed by the OFC Executive Committee following a thorough governance reform process.
When the issues surrounding the Home of Football development in Auckland, New Zealand arose the OFC Executive Committee met in April 2018 and decided to go through a reform process. Following their decision, a Reform Committee was set up to review OFC Statutes.
The Reform Committee made recommendations on the following area:
- Lack of separation of power between various bodies and role confusion
- Lack of independence and accountability
The Executive Committee members agreed with the recommendations made by the Reform Committee and tasked the administration with reviewing and rewriting the statutes where necessary.
The FIFA General Secretary Fatma Samoura attended the congress and congratulated the Confederation for its commitment to improving the governance structure in a manner which increases accountability and transparency.
The revised OFC Statutes outline the roles of the Congress, the President, the Executive Committee, the General Secretary and the Secretariat in a much clearer manner than previously.
They also introduce new eligibility criteria for all office holders, which will be verified by a yet-to-be formed Eligibility Committee, whose members will all be independent.
In addition, the members of the Ethics, Appeal and Disciplinary Committees will all be independent and qualified lawyers, and an Audit and Risk Committee will be established with five members, three of which are independent.
As part of the reforms, the Congress will now elect the standing committees and judicial body members with the first election under the new criteria to be held in March 2019.
The Congress also appointed a new auditor, RSM Hayes, after the firm was approved by the OFC Executive Committee.
The OFC President Lambert Maltock congratulated the executive members and the OFC Congress delegates for their support of the reform process.
“We are proud of the changes being made to improve the governance of OFC and to press forward with the development of football which is, and must always be, our primary objective,” Maltock said.