Team Up and Oceania Football Confederation Collaborate to Strengthen Safeguarding Practices Across the Pacific

Team Up and Oceania Football Confederation Collaborate to Strengthen Safeguarding Practices Across the Pacific

Joint media release - 6 May 2025

The Australian Government’s sport for development program, Team Up, and Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) partnered to deliver a regional safeguarding workshop in Fiji, which ran from 28 April-1 May, aimed at enhancing the capacity of football safeguarding leads across the Pacific. This initiative is a replica of, and builds on the success of, the Regional Safeguarding Workshop which was held in November last year and reflects an ongoing commitment to child protection and prevention of harm and abuse in sport. The workshop also represents a milestone for OFC as its very first safeguarding training of trainers.

The training was attended by Just Play staff from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, as well as FIFA Guardian Diploma participants and other representatives from nine OFC Member Associations.

The workshop, funded by FIFA Forward, delivered comprehensive, contextualised training focused on identifying signs of abuse and violence, first response to disclosures, and pathways for reporting and managing safeguarding concerns. Team Up provided training on signs of different forms of abuse and violence, first response to disclosures, how sporting organisations come to know of safeguarding concerns and the case management process which included practical training on documenting incidents, risk assessments and data protection strategies. The training was contextualised to the Pacific countries’ socio-legal environments. OFC and its Member Associations contributed to sessions on safeguarding compliance, disability inclusion, and examples of both good and poor practices. Fellow Oceania Impact Network member UN Women also participated by sharing global principles and best practices on disclosures and referral mechanisms, while FIFA Disability Football & Accessibility Manager Laure Gruffat shared insights on safeguarding and accessibility. 

Through this training, football safeguarding leaders across the region will gain the confidence and skills to effectively respond to abuse, harm, or neglect, utilising best practices and making appropriate external referrals.

Quotes attributable to OFC Safeguarding and Wellbeing Manager, Palu Uhatahi Tu'amoheloa: “Being a FIFA Guardians Safeguarding in Football Diploma graduate and having attended the Team Up regional safeguarding training gives the courage to put together a training guide for the safeguarding leads among the OFC member associations in the region to provide practical training based on our Pacific context. 

Through this training our member associations will be able to educate their staff, including coaches, referees, officials and players. They will also have the tools and knowledge to strengthen their safeguarding practices and procedures and put in place accessible and effective reporting systems in place.”

Quotes attributable to OFC Head of Social Responsibility, Dr Teeny Aiken: “Partnerships and collaborations are important to effectiveness and greater impact. Through our partnership with Team Up, we have been able to share knowledge and resources to support capacity strengthening of the safeguarding leads and look forward to continuing working together."

Quotes attributable to SIFF Social Responsibility Manager Maria Rarawa: “I’ve been doing safeguarding for a while, but the learnings this week have been enormous.
Going into detail about best practice and the poor practices, these are all vitally important things in our journey as safeguarding leads and for when we review our safeguarding policies.
One of the topics that I was really interested in is safeguarding with our friends with disabilities. These are the forgotten people in society, and football can be a tool to assist with our people and friends with disability using safeguarding to protect them and see their needs and address the needs at hand.”

Quotes attributable to Team Up GEDSI and Safeguarding Advisor, Roshika Deo: “Last year some of the Just Play program safeguarding leads were unable to attend our regional safeguarding workshop so it was encouraging to see OFC take initiative and mobilise resources to hold a similar training. 
Through this training football safeguarding leads across the region will be able to confidently and through the use best practices and their internal procedures respond to abuse, harm or neglect in their countries. They better understand their role in the case management process and when to make external referrals to child protection experts or gender-based violence service providers.”
 

For media inquiries and additional information, please contact: 

Ella Reilly, Media and Communications Officer – Social Responsibility, Oceania Football Confederation
Mobile: +64 21 1975 826 Email: ella.reilly@oceaniafootball.com

Aaron Ballekom, Communications Specialist, Team Up Program 
Mobile: +679 2449764 Email: aaron.ballekom@ghd.com

About the partners 

About Just Play: Just Play is a sport for development program that uses football as a tool to inspire positive social change across the Pacific. Through fun and inclusive activities, the program promotes gender equality, emergency preparedness, social inclusion, and safeguarding. Just Play is implemented in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. It is delivered through a partnership between the Oceania Football Confederation, the Australian Government’s Team Up, and national football federations across the region.

About Oceania Football Federation:  Oceania Football Confederation is one of the world’s six confederations, and is responsible for the development and organisation of football across the South Pacific.
OFC is currently made up of 11 Member Associations and two Associate Members, which it supports through a variety of means including financially and pedagogically.
As well as organising regional qualifiers for all FIFA World Cup tournaments, the General Secretariat provides educational expertise to help guide the development of football across all levels from grassroots to elite, while also catering for a range of different roles from coaches and referees to sports administrators.

About Team Up: Team Up is the Australian Government’s sport for development program in the Asia-Pacific. With more than 60 partners across seven Pacific Island countries, our programs are specifically designed to provide all people, regardless of gender or ability, the opportunity to realise their full potential through sport.