OFC Overview

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" LINK="#FFCC99" ALINK="#009D74" VLINK="#FF9966"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#CC3300" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website</B></FONT>     |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>OFC Overview</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id880.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Oceania Womens Soccer"><U>Oceania Women's Soccer</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id881.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="World Cup"><U>World Cup</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id896.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="OFC Nations Cup"><U>OFC Nations Cup</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id882.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Olympic Games"><U>Olympic Games</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id889.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Youth (U20) World Cup"><U>Youth (U-20) World Cup</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id890.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Junior (U17) World Cup"><U>Junior (U-17) World Cup</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id818.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="OFC Club World Champs"><U>OFC Club World Champs</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id824.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="OFC U16 Pacific Cup"><U>OFC U-16 Pacific Cup</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="OFC Academy"><U>OFC Academy</U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="04658020.gif" border=0 width="600" height="2" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> OFC Overview</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="602" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 4361 WIDTH="596"><div> <B>Academy Marks Further Step Towards True Coming-Of-Age Of Oceania Soccer</B></div> <div> <I><B>by Jeremy Ruane</B></I></div> <bR> <div> The opening of the Charles J. Dempsey Youth Academy, at Mt. Smart Stadium on Saturday, December 12, 1998, marked another step towards the true coming-of-age of the Oceania Football Confederation, almost thirty-five years after the idea of an organisation to oversee the growth of soccer in the South Pacific was first mooted.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>History</B></div> <div> The discussions which led to what was to become the OFC took place during the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and came about as a result of the Asian Football Confederation's refusal to accept either Australia or New Zealand for membership.</div> <bR> <div> Sid Guppy, then chairman of the New Zealand Football Association, and the Australian Soccer Federation's Jim Bayutti, broached the subject with Sir Stanley Rous, at the time the President of FIFA, world soccer's governing body, who welcomed the idea of a Confederation in this part of the world, and encouraged the trans-Tasman neighbours to set to work on making it a reality.</div> <bR> <div> Thus Bayutti and Charles Dempsey, the man the NZFA approached to work on the project on their behalf, went about the task of doing just that, and at the next FIFA Congress in 1966, their efforts met with the approval of FIFA - the Oceania Football Confederation was a reality at last.</div> <bR> <div> The founding members of the OFC were Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, with provision membership afforded New Caledonia, who were not granted full membership due to not having sporting autonomy from France, a status which remains today.</div> <bR> <div> While Oceania was recognised as a confederation, there was still much work to be done if full confederation status was to be afforded it. The rewards for this would be positions of influence on numerous of FIFA's many committees, including its most powerful arm, the Executive Committee.</div> <bR> <div> That work continued through the late 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, until in 1990, FIFA upgraded Oceania's status to that of a 'geographical entity', in preparation for a six-year trial period to determine whether the body merited confirmation as a full confederation.</div> <bR> <div> So to 1996, unquestionably the most significant year in the history of the OFC to that point. Thirty years on from initially being accepted as a confederation, FIFA, confident in the viability of the Oceania Football Confederation, put forward a motion to that end at the FIFA Congress in Zurich. </div> <bR> <div> 170 countries voted in favour of the move, thus confirming the OFC as a full confederation, with a seat on FIFA's Executive Committee.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Dempsey's Role</B></div> <div> Throughout the three decades it took to earn this much-sought-after status, and in the years since gaining it, Charles Dempsey has worked tirelessly for the cause of Oceania.</div> <bR> <div> Following his work with Jim Bayutti in establishing the merits of the Oceania Football Confederation, he was appointed acting secretary in 1970, following the resignation of Oceania's Australian-based President and Secretary, in preparation for Australia's resignation as an OFC member in 1972, in order to pursue membership of the Asian Football Confederation.</div> <bR> <div> Dempsey was confirmed as Secretary in 1972, and held that role for ten years, during which time Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) resigned from the Asian Football Confederation and became members of Oceania for fourteen years (1975-89), Australia rejoined the OFC (1978), and the Solomon Islands gained full membership (1979).</div> <bR> <div> In the years following his election as OFC President in 1982, Dempsey actively encouraged the growth of the game in the islands of the Pacific, and welcomed the affiliation of six more nations to Oceania as a result.</div> <bR> <div> Samoa (1986), Vanuatu (1988), Tahiti (1990), Tonga and the Cook Islands (both 1994) and American Samoa (1998) brought to eleven the number of nations fully affiliated to the Oceania Football Confederation, with New Caledonia following soon afterwards, leaving the Northern Marianas as the last of the provisional members of the youngest of FIFA's football confederations around the globe.</div> <bR> <div> Assisting Dempsey behind the scenes in administering Oceania's development has been his daughter, Josephine King, who was elected OFC Secretary in 1988, a role she continues to hold.</div> <bR> <div> On the field, meanwhile, Dempsey's influence has been most evident through the appointment of Kevin Fallon as Oceania's Technical Director of Coaching. His efforts have seen the football standards of the island nations improve drastically over the last decade, a case in point being the improvements made by the Solomon Islands at age-grade levels.</div> <bR> <div> Each country in the confederation now has its own National Technical Director of Football, while FIFA projects such as Goal have also brought about great improvements in the facilities available to the member nations of OFC.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>End Of An Era</B></div> <div> Dempsey retired from the Presidency in September 2001, following events in the hours leading up to the announcement of Germany as hosts of the 2006 World Cup Finals, and the subsequent media pressure, the intensity of which was such that the issue was one of the leading global news and sports stories of 2001. </div> <bR> <div> After one of the most fiercely contested World Cup hosting campaigns in the game's history, which saw soccer legends such as Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Geoff Hurst - on behalf of England - and German pair Franz Beckenbauer and Jurgen Klinsmann visiting New Zealand to press the claims of their respective nations, as well as an impressive delegation from South Africa, such was the intensity of the lobbying in the final hours of the election campaign that Dempsey found himself in a position which prompted him to abstain from the final vote, a straight head-to-head between Germany and South Africa, in the interests of integrity.</div> <bR> <div> The final count was twelve votes to eleven in Germany's favour, out of a total of twenty-four possible votes. An additional vote for South Africa would have seen the votes tied, and the destiny of hosting the 2006 World Cup Finals at the mercy of FIFA President Sepp Blatter's casting vote. This would have seen the most prestigious sporting event in the world being hosted on the African continent for the first time ever, as Blatter had publicly declared his hand.</div> <bR> <div> Dempsey became the most wanted man on earth, as media from all over the globe clamoured for an explanation as to why he chose to abstain. Public opinion had Dempsey painted very much as public enemy number one. </div> <bR> <div> Public opinion is often reactionary and ill-informed, however, due primarily to a lack of knowledge of the full story, including all the behind-the-scenes machinations, because those in positions to present the full facts tend to select only those facts which fit the story they want to make known to the masses. </div> <bR> <div> The opinion-makers got their way on this occasion, as Dempsey retired from the role he held for nineteen years, to be replaced by Australia's Basil Scarsella for the remainder of Dempsey's latest four-year tenure. For his services to Oceania, the long-time driving force behind the confederation was accorded the title of Honorary President in December 2001, under which he operates in an advisory capacity.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>World Cup Qualification</B></div> <div> Oceania is not the smallest confederation in the footballing world. The acceptance of American Samoa as a full member of the world body in 1998 brought to 203 the number of nations now so recognised by FIFA, and also meant that the world governing body's smallest confederation, numerically, is now CONMEBOL, or South America.</div> <bR> <div> Despite boasting just ten member nations, the South Americans were represented by half of their members at the 2002 World Cup Finals. Four qualified automatically, while Uruguay ended Oceania's hopes of a solitary representative at the first Finals to take place in Asia when conquering Australia in a two-legged play-off.</div> <bR> <div> The one true occasion when Oceania was represented at the World Cup Finals - Australia were not members of the confederation when they qualified for West Germany '74, remember - was as a result of New Zealand's circuitous qualifying path en route to Spain '82.</div> <bR> <div> Some fifteen games were played by the All Whites all-up, seven of which were against the cream of Asian soccer, including that famous sudden-death play-off in 'neutral' Singapore against China.</div> <bR> <div> Since then, Australia have lost out in play-offs against Scotland, Argentina, Iraq and Uruguay, while prior to the 1990 Finals, Columbia put paid to the hopes of Israel, who contested the Oceania qualifying series in both 1985 and 1989 due to their expulsion from the Asian confederation, a result of the political tensions of the era. (Israel nowadays contest the European qualifying series).</div> <bR> <div> Thus the prime objective for the Oceania Football Confederation in the 21st century has been to secure direct qualification for the region's top qualifier to the ultimate sporting event.</div> <bR> <div> It seems a mite obscure that such a prize is afforded the leading Oceania nation at Under-17, Under-20 and Women's World Cup levels, as well as at the Confederations Cup and, from 2004, the Olympic Games, yet the World Cup Finals has yet to be graced by a direct qualifier from this part of the globe.</div> <bR> <div> But the youngest confederation's time has come, with direct qualification to the World Cup Finals of 2006 and beyond becoming a reality on December 18, 2002.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The Charles J. Dempsey Academy</B></div> <div> The Academy has been built at a cost of $NZ 1.2m to provide intensive coaching, refereeing and administrative facilities for all eleven countries which make up the Oceania Football Confederation, with a particular focus of building up the standards of youth soccer in the region.</div> <bR> <div> As well as a two-storey building capable of hosting up to twenty-six players, the development will see the pitch formerly known as Mt Smart #4 upgraded to international standard, with floodlighting erected for use by the OFC.</div> <bR> <div> In addition, under the deal brokered with the Auckland Regional Council, the OFC can use the gym facilities at the headquarters of the New Zealand Warriors Rugby League club, and in return other New Zealand sporting bodies, including league, rugby, athletics, netball and cycling, can access the academy four months every year.</div> <bR> <div> The funding for the project came from a soft-loan given by FIFA to Oceania, against the $US 10m the OFC will receive up to 2002 under the terms of a new billion-dollar World Cup television deal. The interest-free loan needs to be repaid by 2006.</div> <bR> <div> For more information on the Academy facility, go <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFF00" FACE="Garamond" ><A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="OFC Academy"><U>here</U></A></FONT>.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The Future</B></div> <div> The backing of FIFA has given the Oceania Football Confederation the opportunity to tackle a number of issues which, without the support of the world body, would simply not have been feasible.</div> <bR> <div> Obviously, the Academy is a key development in the future plans of the OFC, both in its objective to secure direct qualification to future World Cup Finals, and in terms of moving into the 21st century. But it isn't the only one.</div> <bR> <div> Already a marketing partnership has been signed with the Oceania Sport Group, which resulted in a new logo being defined for the confederation, a quarterly magazine - 'The Wave', and an OFC Media Guide coming to pass in the first year following the partnership's commencement in 1997.</div> <bR> <div> A special taskforce has been set up with the objective of focusing on the special needs of the island countries, which make up nine of the eleven members of Oceania. To assist in this process, all OFC members are now fully computerised, with email addresses and at least one full-time employee working for their national association. Also, each country now boasts its own Technical Director of Coaching.</div> <bR> <div> Long-term, each country should have an academy which works in closely with the Charles Dempsey Academy to ensure that programmes are in place for young players, who will also benefit from age-group competitions conducted at these academies. Meanwhile, regular training will be available for referees, coaches, administrators and sports medicine practitioners.</div> <bR> <div> On the field, the relaunching of the Oceania Nations Cup in 1996, and its alignment with the championships held by FIFA's five other confederations, has allowed Oceania to play a full part in, and stand to benefit from, FIFA's Confederations Cup tournament.</div> <bR> <div> Witness Australia's second placing in the inaugural tournament in Saudi Arabia, an effort which earned Soccer Australia's coffers well over $US 1m, once the Socceroos' progress to the final had been taken into account.</div> <bR> <div> Until the advent of the Confederations Cup, the member nations of the Oceania Football Confederation were not privy to the opportunity to gain direct qualification to a tournament featuring the footballing world's elite.</div> <bR> <div> With direct access to the World Cup Finals now achieved by the OFC, the other areas of development listed above all stand to gain. Continued good performances at all levels, particularly in final tournaments, by Oceania's representatives, have played a significant role in convincing FIFA that World Cup play-offs involving Oceania's finest should become a thing of the past, and the Oceania Football Confederation can now truly claim to have come of age.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Written in December 1998, following an interview with Charles Dempsey prior to the opening of the Academy, and updated in April 2002, and again in December 2002.</I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id878.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Oceania Soccer"><U><B>Oceania Soccer</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </BODY>