A three-day workshop to discuss the OFC Education Centre concept was facilitated by OFC Instructor Paul Toohey and FIFA Consultant Glenn Turner last week.
The OFC Education Centre is the initiative of the OFC President, Mr. David Chung who firmly believes that education in football – of players, coaches, referees, administrators and medical staff is the key to progress and the development of football in Oceania.
The workshop focused on the objectives of the Education Centre concepts and how Tonga Football Association could respond and implement from 2017. The objectives of the football education centres are to establish and sustain the TFA Education Centre, to develop a comprehensive curriculum with specific learning programmes and activities, to implement and provide appropriate learning courses and experiences for targeted stakeholders and retain all participants, to be recognised by the Government, partners and the football family as a credible provider of football education programmes and finally to monitor and review the outcomes of the courses and activities on an annual basis.
The response from the participants attending the workshop, including the TFA President Lord Ve’ehala, CEO, technical staff, finance, media, communication and marketing officers was unanimously in support of the project.
The goals have been determined to assist and achieve Tonga FA’s vision, ‘’To popularize football in Tonga.’’
The President of the Tonga FA, Lord Veéhala says, ‘’This is a remarkable initiative, and I am forever grateful to OFC President, Mr David Chung for approving Tonga to be one of the first to set up an Education Centre.
“This workshop was very fruitful and we all now fully understand what lies ahead of us. I have no doubt creating this education centre will make a huge contribution to the development of football in Tonga and the OFC region.’’
The Tonga Football Association Education Centre in Tongatapu, will be the initial hub for the educational activities.
The vision and objective is to: “Popularise football in Tonga”, and Turner believes TFA has made a great start to getting the project underway.
‘’On behalf of Paul Toohey and I, I wish to extend our gratitude to Tonga Football Association for their full participation and contribution while attending this workshop,” Turner said.
“We are both looking forward to the implementation of the Tonga FA Education Centre in 2017.”
TFA CEO Lui Áho said: ‘’We have four months before the implementation period begins and of course we all have roles to play before 2017. This is not a long period, therefore we will work together to fulfil all that is required for a successful launch.
It is an exciting time for Tonga which has shown great strides in development at a regional level, testing their opponents to the last minute in both the OFC U-20 and U-17 Preliminary competitions recently.
‘’We have homework to be completed over the next week with regards to listing the required equipment and in a few other areas, and I will make sure this will be done and forwarded back to OFC,” Áho said.
The necessary documentation is expected to be completed over the next two weeks ready for approval by the Tonga Football Association Executive Committee.
Photo: L-R: TFA President Lord Ve'ehala and OFC Instructor Paul Toohey.