February 3 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) have signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a view to exploring future competitions for national teams.
The agreement was signed on the fringes of the AFC Congress between AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (pictured right) and OFC president Lambert Maltock (pictured left).
“This Memorandum of Understanding symbolises the long-standing partnership between the AFC and the OFC and reinforces our commitment to unlock the opportunities to further expand the growth of the game in this passionate Asia-Pacific region,” said Shaik Salman.
“Both the AFC and the OFC share similar challenges as well as common interests and I am confident that the exchange of best practices will provide fresh impetus to take the beautiful game to even greater heights.”
The two confederations will be the first to see two nations from different regions co-host a World Cup when New Zealand (OFC) and Australia (AFC), welcome the world for the Women’s World Cup 2023 this summer.
The AFC/OFC accord mirrors a similar one signed with Concacaf, also at the AFC Congress. The aim of both is to provide more playing opportunity for nations at a competitive level. The OFC agreement will focus on new competition with some of the AFCs lower ranked nations, while the Concacaf deal will open up opportunity for the AFC’s higher ranked countries.
The OFC MoU also commits to a wide package of knowledge sharing and joint initiatives.
OFC President Maltock added: “We are pleased that the implementation of this agreement means a focus on high level competitions between representative teams from both confederations,” said Maltock.
“The development that Oceania men and women’s teams will gain from these competitions are hugely beneficial and reinforces OFC’s commitment to the strategic pillars of development and high performance within the OFC Strategy.”
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