OFC faces liquidation for unpaid invoices

THE Oceania Football Confederation has been ordered to pay A$380,000 (K897,000) to a contractor that worked on its controversial Home of Football project in Auckland.
A New Zealand judge ordered the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to pay more than NZ$400,000 (K902,000) to the contractor or face liquidation.
In a judgment released by the High Court, Associate Judge Warwick Smith ordered the OFC to pay for six unpaid invoices between February and April 2018.
Smith said if the amount was not paid in 10 working days, the company, ESSL, could apply to have the confederation placed in liquidation.
The Home of Football project was launched by the OFC in 2012 and was to include two Fifa-standard football pitches, a grandstand, offices and an indoor futsal complex.
Fifa provided a US$10 million (K33.8 mil) interest-free loan in September 2012 for the project.
The first stage of the project was completed and work on stage two began in 2014. ESSL joined the project in 2017 and its contract ended in September 2018.
OFC acting general secretary Frank Castillo said on Tuesday that US$11 million (K37 mil) had been spent on the project and stage two was not complete.
Fifa suspended its funding to OFC when the Home of Football went into millions of dollars over budget and announced in April 2018 it was conducting an audit of the project.
Former OFC president David Chung and secretary general Tai Nicholas subsequently resigned and have been suspended by Fifa for financial misconduct.
Nicolas was banned for eight years for “misappropriation of Fifa funds allocated to the OFC between 2014 and 2017 in relation to the OFC Home of Football”.
Chung, a former Fifa senior vice-president, was banned for six-and-a-half years for “having offered and accepted gifts” and for having a “conflict of interest” around the project. Both men were also fined.
– news.com.au