National teams from the Oceania Football Confederation embraced the opportunity to compete against strong teams from around the globe in the FIFA Series recently.
Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Zealand have competed in the FIFA Series at tournaments in Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and Egypt respectively, and have all hailed the initiative to give nations on the far reaches of the world more chances to test and develop themselves.
Papua New Guinea Head Coach, Warren Moon praised FIFA and the organising countries for this new initiative and hoped the pilot series would see many repeats.
“I think it’s a brilliant initiative from FIFA. It obviously wouldn’t have happened if FIFA didn’t roll something like this out. I know it’s a pilot, it’s the first time it’s happened, but I can only see this being a positive, especially for countries like PNG,” said Moon.
The Kapuls had lost their second match in the series 0-4 against the strong African opposition after earning a credible 0-0 draw with hosts Sri Lanka in the first match.
“To get this kind of opportunity to come to a place like Sri Lanka, we’ve been treated really well, the organisation’s been first class from FIFA, so I think it really gives the team something to look forward to.”
Moon added that PNG was grateful to be one of the lucky countries to be invited to the FIFA Series, "but we hope it’s not the last time that FIFA invites us, because I think something like this can benefit Papua New Guinea”.
The FIFA Series sees world football’s governing body support its member associations in organising international friendly matches comprising four national teams from different confederations in a single host country.
The initiative provides FIFA Member Associations with a more regular opportunity to face national teams from other continents, which will serve to unlock technical development opportunities previously unavailable to many of them.