A three-day workshop to help player development in the Oceania region has tackled some of the key issues facing football development officers in member countries.
OFC Player Development Officer Phill Parker, who organised the Auckland Play Like The Stars workshop, said representatives from nine of Oceania’s member associations had used the October 2023 gathering to build their network and relationships “so we can find a safe space to information (and) share the challenges we are facing.”
He said the three keys to football participation were finance, transport and family support.
Main photo: OFC’s Phill Parker … organised the first OFC Player Development Workshop in almost six years.
“There are three key things that seem to always surface,” he told OFC Media.
“One is transport, okay, getting from A to B, or even having access to transport to get from A to B. And we’re talking about vehicles, motor vehicles.
“The second one is finance. In some countries, it’s a user pays programme and in the majority of them, there’s no cost at all.
“It goes back to getting them to the venues to participate and to train.
“The third one is, in some countries we found — and there seems to be a similarity — is family or parental support.
“Sometimes it can be too much. Sometimes it can be non-existent. What we tried to do was to address those three key barriers to participation, finance, transport, and family support.”
READ MORE: Ambitious OFC Play Like The Stars workshop held in Auckland >>>>
Watch Phill Parker interview
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