OFC Newsletter May 2020 - English

NEWSLETTER M AY 2020

NEW REALITIES

These are difficult and unprecedented times for all of us. The impact of COVID-19 has been felt around the world, having a significant effect on the way we go about our daily lives and work.

© Ph ot ot ek NZ

The consequences of the pandemic on football have been far-reaching and we are conscious there will be new challenges for everyone in the coming year. We are committed to adapting our work and operations to the current reality.

SIR JOHN GUISE STADIUM , PORT MORESBY , PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

" OFC st aff are commit t ed t o safet y during t he pandemic" As a dynamic organisation we are thankful we have the skills and technology to continue working towards the growth and development of football in Oceania in these unprecedented times.

HOM E OF FOOTBALL

officials in the Pacific.

Project completion is expected by the end of March 2021, we are excited that our plans are back on track.

Social Resp onsib ility

We worked from home to keep safe in our bubbles during the lockdown in New Zealand.

Footb all Develop ment

Following confirmation from the Government, New Zealand moved to alert level 2 on Thursday, 14 May. OFC continues to follow safety protocols in our return to the office.

HEALTH & SAFETY The health, safety and wellbeing of OFC staff was given top priority during the lockdown period.It also ensured that all employees working from home were well equipped in working from their satellite offices.

FOOTBALL DIVISION:

Our Football Development team's main focus was to create an interactive online environment for their resources.

Women' s Footb all Emma Evans worked on a capacity building strategy that will help the continued expansion of the women's game in the Pacific.

Ed ucation and Hig h Performance Rescheduling upcoming courses and restructuring the content for the OFC A and B license courses provided the focal points for this team.

COM PETITIONS

Refereeing

The competitions department used the lockdown period to review its operating procedures and develop new, innovative ways to improve future tournaments.

The department worked on educational resources for the Referee Accreditation Process to ensure consistency in terms of the education and training of match

Our Social Responsibility team mainly concentrated on a development phase during the lockdown, with a specific focus on key priority areas for our member associations.

COM M ERCIAL & COM M UNICATIONS This team worked on the 2020/21 marketing and strategies while the media team spent the lockdown producing news stories as well as other content celebrating some milestone moments in our history.

LEGAL & COM PLIANCE With no competitions being held, the legal team worked on proactive and productive policies, regulations and contracts.

FINANCE & SERVICES The finance team developed some new processes to suit their remote working environment during the lockdown period.

STAFF WORKING REM OTELY The Oceania Footb all Confed eration w ould like to commend the resp onse of its staff d uring the COVID-19 p and emic. The team has manag ed to stay safe, focused and connected w hile ad ap ting to the situation.

The decision to postpone all football activities was reviewed on 6 May and further extended to 31 July to safeguard teams and officials in our Member Associations, and to play our part in helping stop the spread of coronavirus. ?The health and safety of our staff, players and officials in our Member Associations and the wellbeing of people across our Pacific region will always take priority for our organisation," OFC General Secretary, Franck Castillo.

MAY 2020

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

OFC SOLIDARITY FUND

The OFC Executive Committee? recently?approved funding to OFC?s 11 Member Associations to help reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.?

The OFC Solidarity Fund was developed in order to support staff, volunteers, players, coaches, referees and the wider football community across Oceania.?

The grant, which is part of the OFC FIFA FORWARD funding, was designed to cover four key areas, including food and hygiene packets, loss of income, medical allowances and self-isolation costs.?

In addition, the OFC Solidarity Fund will also provide assistance to those countries that were directly affected by the Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold that struck in April.?

Each OFC Member Association will be eligible to apply for funding totalling NZD$50,000.?

All Member Associations within OFC were forced to temporarily close due to the pandemic with many staff members working from home. Some countries within the OFC region have spent time in lockdown to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

OFC wants to ensure our Member Associations have the ability to continue to thrive, as football is a vital part of the community in the Pacific.

We believe that football can help play a strong role in helping our community come together when life returns to normal in the future.

In the meantime, we urge all people of the Pacific to continue to stay safe and support each other during this difficult time.

MAY 2020

HEALTH & SAFETY OFC is committed to the health and safety of people throughout Oceania and have taken considerable measures during this lockdown period to ensure the safety of everyone in the football community by suspending travel and all tournaments during the CORVID-19 pandemic.

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

These measures have been extended to providing mental health care to staff during lockdown through an on-call therapist.

OFC GRASSROOTS PROGRAMME MAY 2020

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

COM PETITIONS Although our competitions have been postponed in order to safeguard our football family across the Pacific, the competitions department has been busy reviewing its standard operating procedures as well as finding new innovative ways to improve our upcoming tournaments.

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

During the past two months,

CHRIS KEMP AND BEN HILL OF OFC COMPETITIONS

the lockdown has provided us with a rare opportunity to take a step back and put the spotlight on every aspect of our operation, from planning and pre-tournament logistics to matchday deliveries.

adjusted operational plan and budget.

Aiming to improve our efficiency we also engaged competitions managers across our Member Associations which helped us to build a greater understanding of their local competitions, challenges and needs.

We are also conscious of developing contingency plans to ensure that when it is considered safe to play again, we are able to reschedule all OFC competitions and provide a high-quality football experience for players, coaches, officials and fans.

We have created guidelines, templates and documents which will provide our Member Associations?s with more clarity at the recommencement of our competitions.

Our main priorities for the coming months will focus on creating a realistic 2021 competitions calendar and

While we are in the middle of a process to change the way we operate, the core of what we do is focused on innovative thinking.

In the meantime, we are continuing to prioritise and plan for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the New Zealand Government, OFC has successfully progressed in the home of football project.

All the drawings were completed, and the building consent was lodged 28 April.

We also opened the tender on 14 April with the ?Request For Tender? (RFT) document and the draft of the building contract. The RFT includes the evaluation criteria which will help the panel assess and evaluate the proposals and make a recommendation to be validated by the OFC executive Committee on 16 June.

ŠPh ot ot ek NZ

HOM E OF FOOTBALL

NGAHUE RESERVE, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Once the contract has been awarded the construction should start in the beginning of July 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, the Auckland Council and our donors (UEFA and FIFA) agreed to allow us more time to finalise the project. We aim to finish the Home of Football by the end of March 2021.

MAY 2020

FOOTBALL DEVELOPM ENT

After reviewing and finalising our programme resources, we are now collaborating with the social, education and media departments to produce customisable, web and video based learning tools that will enable our Member Associations to launch our programmes in the likely event that we cannot travel.

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

The football development team?s focus during the lockdown period was to emerge stronger and in a better position to serve our Member Associations ? by turning a difficult situation into a positive one.

The programmes will be rolled out from late May 2020 and include football development centres and centres of excellence along with specialist programmes for women?s futsal, goalkeeping, futsal and beach soccer Highlights include: -

Women?s Football Capacity Building online workshop The OFC Skills Video Challenge The OFC Football Programme Management platform

EDUCATION & HIGH PREFORM ANCE

Placing constraints on a footb aller d uring p ractice encourag es them to b ecome creative to find a solution to the p rob lems they' re facing .

With this in mind , OFC are researching and investig ating d ifferent w ays to d eliver, sup p ort, reflect and p lan hig h p erformance and ed ucation p rog rammes.

There has b een an exp losion of w eb inars, online courses and mentoring p rog rammes in recent w eeks that show w hat can b e d one w hen p eop le are not in the same room or on the same footb all p itch.

We w ill aim not to rep lace our trad itional courses and w orkshop s, b ut to use online tools to ad d value to the existing offer.

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

We are currently in d iscussions w ith org anisations sp ecialising in vid eo p erformance analysis and researching online teaching p latforms from across the w orld .

MAY 2020

This w ill help p rovid e further sup p ort for p layers, teams, coaches and referees and enab le our 11 M emb er Associations to create p rog rammes that clearly meet the need s of their footb all family.

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

REFEREEING Adversity is an opportunity to re?evaluate how we develop our referee education and fitness programme. We saw the obstacles which confronted us during the COVID-19 lockdown as an opportunity to develop other means of providing our Member Associations with the referee, beach soccer, futsal

education and fitness resources.

We had to consider those who don?t have internet access but also ensure they had access to all resources.

Technology is the greatest tool at our disposal at moment. As it is used to conduct online conferencing and meetings with all of our stakeholders. This ensured that each Member Association was abreast of the latest developments in the OFC region.

Topics discussed on the forum were developed into PowerPoint resources and hard copies of the Laws of the Game test were created and forwarded to all Member Associations to pass on to those officials who don?t have access to the internet during this difficult time.

The use of online forums to discuss the Laws of the Game stimulated great discussion and also enabled us to ensure consistency in the interpretation and application of the laws among all participants.

The use of the online Laws of the Game test was a great opportunity to ensure that all participants kept up to date with the latest Laws, especially with the new changes coming into effect on 1 June.

MAY 2020

Social Responsibilit y

As Social Responsibility cannot guarantee a ?safe place to play? following the onset of the spread of the coronavirus, a period of inward-looking capacity development is taking place to ensure business continues and preparations are made for when the crisis passes. This will take place for the duration of the shut-down/postponement period, which is estimated to last between 6-12 months.

Activities d irectly imp acted b y the coronavirus p and emic: Training :

M onitoring activities:

With the closure of schools and the ban on public gatherings across the majority of Pacific Islands countries, all training activities for teachers and community volunteers have been put on hold.

With the closure of schools across the majority of Pacific Island countries, all school visits and programme monitoring activities have been postponed.

Session d elivery: With the closure of schools and the ban on sport activities across the majority of Pacific Island countries, delivery of Just Play sessions by coaches have been put on hold.

Festivals and events: With the ban on sport activities and public gatherings across the majority of Pacific Island countries, all Just Play festivals and special events have been postponed.

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

To safeguard the wellbeing of staff, partners and programme participants, Social Responsibility programming activities have been scaled back and/or postponed based on guidance from governments around the Pacific in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the business continuity plan for Social Responsibility was developed and enacted in early March 2020.

MAY 2020

Activities not affected b y the coronavirus p and emic: Eq uip ment d elivery:

Thank you to our partners ? UEFA

Programme equipment was

Foundation for Children, Australian

delivered in March and April.

Government and the English Football Association for the

Curriculum and resource d evelop ment: Finalisation of the remaining programming components for

wonderful resources you have shared during this unique period!

Here are some of the links we have been sharing!

the new Just Play 6-12-year programme curriculum are

UEFA Foundation For Children

underway with no delays

launches 'Champions Teachers'

anticipated.

https://bit.ly/2WluJfu

Strateg ic p lanning :

English Football Association?s

Day of Sport for Development

YouTube page includes a collection

and Peace, Just Play shared two

of videos focusing on fun, ideas of

videos that promoted key

how to keep fit at home, coach

messages on the importance of

interviews, coaching sessions and

hand washing and social

webinars on a variety of topics.

distancing through our social

https://bit.ly/2WKN3xj

media platforms.

Know led g e Attitud es and

Social Responsibility staff have

Practices (KAP) stud y:

participated in several Zoom

With an almost region-wide travel

calls, including being featured on

ban, an amended KAP study model

the Laureus Sport for Good

is currently under development

Foundation?s series ? Sharing

and will be rolled out in the coming

Communities Calls, which is

months leveraging the capacity of

focusing on how sport

our national country teams, in place

programmes are adapting to the

of the planned traditional KAP

current pandemic and taking

study.

lessons learnt to develop

A strategic planning toolkit was developed and shared with teams, who are now busy developing their strategic programme plans for the period of 2020-2024 M entorship and cap acity b uild ing : Links to online resources have been continuously shared and provided to our teams, providing them with alternative learning methods and adapted activities they can participate in throughout the pandemic period.

M ed ia and communication: In celebration of the International

adapted programming models.

Lavenia Yalovi, Just Play Programme Manager with the Fiji Football Association, spoke during a recent call on how Just Play has taken lessons learnt from the past emergency programmes delivered in Fiji, Vanuatu and India, and applied them to the current pandemic. Live discussions will be made accessible online soon.

Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/JUSTPLAYOFC) to learn more about what we are doing during the pandemic period.

MAY 2020

COM M ERCIAL & COM M UNICATIONS

The lockd ow n p eriod allow ed the Commerical and Communications team to refocus on b uild ing the found ation of the d ep artment ?s strateg ic ap p roach and inter-d ep artmental collab oration.

This involved ob serving p revious d ay-to-d ay op erations and tournament op erations; the focal p oint w as to d evelop a tactical ap p roach and imp rove how w e op erate as a team.

We w ere ab le to d evelop clear g uid elines that w ill factor into TV and M ed ia op erations d uring tournaments as p art of an alig ned communications strateg y across OFC.

ŠPh ot ot ek NZ

Our team consid ered new w ays to rep ort on w hat ?s successful and how to imp rove and create content outsid e of the norm in ord er to keep footb all fans eng ag ed and interactive.

MAY 2020

It also g ave us the op p ortunity to b etter sup p ort OFC' s Footb all Division b y ensuring all content around footb all d evelop ment, ed ucation and Social Resp onsib ility is up to d ate and read ily availab le for our footb all community.

LEGAL & COM PLIANCE The lockdown period was positive for the Legal and Compliance Department.

With no competitions the department focused on more proactive and productive policies, regulations and contracts.

-

Tender for Home of Football with the proposed construction contract Template match official agreement and code of conduct for Refereeing Broadcast contract Marketing and Media Regulations Terms of use for the OFC website

In May the priorities are:

Š Ph ot ot ek NZ

-

Review of statutes for the working group Privacy policy Terms of use for COMET

MAY 2020

Š Ph ot oek NZ

FINANCE & SERVICES

Similarly to other OFC departments, the lockdown period has created some challenges as well new opportunities for the Finance team, especially regarding our work practices.

However, in order to make the most of the situation, we provided training for our team members on the relevant software and applications that will benefit them and the organisation in the post-lockdown period.

Working remotely from home required major adjustments, however some of the new processes we explored and adopted had a positive impact on both our workflow and our delivery.

The significant reduction in activities during the past two months also allowed the Procurement team to work on some of our backlogged orders and focus on building the foundation of the team's strategic approach for the future.

Some of the new work-from-home practices we developed have been so successful that we are keen to continue them even when we resume our normal way of working back at the OFC office.

That included the development of clear guidelines and different types of templates that will be used moving forward.

In terms of our facilities team, since their day-to-day work predominantly entails outdoor activities, such as building, landscaping and maintenance work we had additional challenges.

MAY 2020