Courtesy: Solomon Star News


OFC chief pledges $57m for football

Friday, 24 September 2010

THE next eight years is set to go down in our football history books as a new era in football as we are expected to see a major shift to the development of football in Solomon Islands.

The Oceania Football Confederation president Reynald Temarii yesterday pledged a $57 million project to develop SIFF programmes in the country.

President Temarii told a press conference before he left yesterday that the $57 million is allocated for all new projects that SIFF will develop for the next eight years commencing 2011.

OFC in a new approach to develop football in the Oceania region have allocated a total of $860 million for their projects around the region with $57 million from the total to be invested in the Solomon Islands.

The money will be used to develop and work on the five main objectives SIFF and OFC have discussed and agreed upon during the past three days.

The five areas of development are as follows:

* $4 million for grassroots program
* $1 million for the international and external communication programs
* $25 million for elite performances and national youth talented academy
* $2 million for professionalize management and
* $25 million for SIFF organized competitions

Within the proposed project new beach soccer and Futsal stadiums will be built in Honiara, Malaita and Gizo.

Two world class international stadiums will be built in Honiara and two other minor ones in the other two provinces.

The projects will be built in Aligegeo, JFK in Gizo and the SIFF Academy at Ranadi.

Ground work for the two major stadiums is expected to begin March next year.

President Temarii explained that out of all the regional countries only Solomon Islands will have a project that aims to develop more on beach soccer and futsal.

“It is FIFA and OFC’s aim to put Solomon Islands in the top ten countries in the world especially in beach soccer and futsal. With Kurukuru currently ranked 47 in the world and Bilikiki beach soccer ranked 14 in the world, it is our aim to help to improve their rankings to the top ten”, the OFC president said.

Meanwhile, president Temarii acknowledged SIFF for a job well done for their hard work and commitment in developing soccer in the country over the years.

“I would also like to thank SIFF’s major sponsors like Our Telekom and DJ Graphics and other associated sponsors for their continuous support in helping to develop football to the grassroots level”, he said.

OFC vision for 2010-2018 will also cover six strategic areas such as education, health, environment, economy, social integration and good governance.

Meanwhile, President of SIFF Martin Alufurai has advised football critics that they should start trusting and supporting the SIFF executives to help football.

Alufurai said over the years they have received complaints that SIFF have been doing nothing and they have eaten up money that have been allocated for football in the country.

“These mentalities need to be changed and people need to understand that SIFF don’t manage or control money that comes from OFC or FIFA. These are two major football bodies and they have very strict regulations when piloting such programmes. We are just waiting to receive the finish product”, he explained.

OFC president Temarii sounded the same sentiments that FIFA and OFC will manage all the funds for the project so people should not have bad thoughts about how SIFF will handle the money.

A farewell dinner hosted by DJ Graphics was held at Honiara Hotel on Wednesday night in honour of the OFC president.

President Temarii and his delegates left the country yesterday.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com