Soccer: NZF call for more openness in OFC

New Zealand Football bosses are calling for greater transparency in the corridors of power within the Oceania Football Confederation to the extent they are considering putting forward a presidential candidate at the forthcoming election.

But before they would do that, the NZF board would need to feel they would have a legitimate chance of success.

Tahitian Reynald Temarii was expected to win a second four-year term but cannot now be considered until 2015 after being forced out when handed a one-year ban by Fifa on the recommendation of their ethics committee "for breaching confidentiality". Stand-in president David Chung (Papua New Guinea) is expected to put his name forward.

"There are always factions when it comes to a vote like this," said NZF chairman Frank van Hattum. "Again, it comes back to transparency. The danger is that when rumours start, things are hidden away. New Zealand has to remain a driving force in Oceania but we have to remember all 11 countries are equal."

Yet the motives, and ethics, of some OFC members has to be questioned. Being on the executive, and in some cases, Fifa, can give them a lifestyle the envy of many. New Zealand takes a different approach, with any pay for their delegates from OFC handed to the national body.

"Progress has been made," said van Hattum. "But negativity is not good for any sport. Since Reynald Temarii has been president there has been very little hassle and things have been quite stable. Unfortunately, OFC has now been tarnished by this scandal."

There have also been questions about the way the confederation at times operates. This weekend, for example, the executive meets in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Top of the agenda is confirming the date and location of the 2011 Oceania congress at which the presidential vote will be taken.

Van Hattum questions why this could not have been done when the executive met in Auckland two weeks ago. It is an exercise, costing $40,000, to decide something which is more or less in place already, as the congress had to be held before January 19, when Temarii's term would have ended.

Elsewhere, as a cost-saving measure, the popular club-based O-League is set to be reduced from eight to six teams, with New Zealand having just one, rather than two, representative.

"At the end of the day it is an executive decision," said New Zealand's Oceania delegate Fred de Jong. "I don't have a problem with that."

With de Jong nursing a broken leg - the legacy of playing in a seven-a-side game earlier in the week - he will miss tomorrow's meeting but is hopeful of having a teleconference link.

The OFC is a powerful sporting body in this part of the world with a vital role to play in countries where soccer is very popular but their credibility must not be compromised at the grassroots or any level of the game in riding that popularity.