OFC and UEFA launched a groundbreaking three-year partnership at a workshop in Düsseldorf, Germany, held to mark Euro 2024.

As part of the partnership, OFC and UEFA will collaborate on football management within the OFC capacity building programmes and on football development with OFC U-15 tournaments.

As part of the partnership in the field of football management, a workshop was held in Düsseldorf on 17 and 18 June 2024 to launch the collaboration.

In a joint effort, the content was provided by the UEFA Academy team and experts, together with the OFC team and the Secretaries General of UEFA member states Wales (Noel Mooney), Malta (Angelo Chetcuti), Faroe Islands (Kristin Dam Ziska) and the President of Concacaf member state Bermuda (Mark Wade).

The workshop focused on exploring the theme of high-performance leadership and high-performance membership associations. Sessions were designed with an innovative and interactive approach, allowing for much peer-to-peer exchange.

Participants in the OFC included Fiji Football Federation Secretaries General Mohammed Yusuf, Tonga Football Federation Lui ‘Aho, Samoa Football Federation Ronna Lee, Solomon Islands Football Federation Leonard Paia and Federation Tahitienne de Football’s Moeama Mu-Greig.

The participants already saw a positive impact on the added value of the collaboration during these first interactions.

Mohammed Yusuf, secretary general of the Fiji Football Association, said the workshop was very useful “as the programmes were interactive, which showed active participation from everyone.”

“We learned a lot about workload and delegation,” he said.

Yusuf said Fiji Football implements a culture of high performance.

“The process had already started for us after our restructuring. This session enabled me to focus on understanding the workload of each HOD and create an atmosphere of appreciation and reward,” said Yusuf.

Main photo: Workshop delegates from UEFA and OFC. Photo credits: Pau Barrena / UEFA/UEFA / Getty Images.

This story was first published on July 20, 2024.

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