Vakatalesau joins NZ soccer club

Lautoka soccer star Osea Vakatalesau will join Papakura CIty FC in New Zealand next year.

The 19-year-old has been a revelation for the Sugar City side over the years and scored the goals when it mattered.

Described by a former Fiji coach as "coach able," Vakatalesau has had a good outing this season for his club, district and country.

Vakatalesau has exceptional first touch for his size and is strong in the air

Despite his youth, has shown commitment to making a success of his career.

Hailing from Walotua Village in Wainibuka, Tailevu, Vakatalesau was a member of the Fiji side which beat India earlier this season.

He was also part of the Lautoka team which won the Inter District Championship in October and helped his club, General Machinery United win the National Club Championship earlier this month.

Papakura City FC was the home of Fijian international Stewart Bola in 2005, the club was relegated from the Northern Premier League and will contest the Northern First Division next year.

And Fiji national soccer coach Lee Sterrey is in Australia meeting several top clubs to try and secure contracts for Fijian players.

Sterrey said overseas contracts would assist local players in getting more top-level experience.

While in Australia, Sterrey will also look for teams to tour Fiji next year.

Edward Drollett Jr. and Mii Piri have won the men's and women's soccer Player of the Year awards for 2005.

They were honoured among the senior players for the year's soccer season at the senior prize presentation.

Drollett and Piri have won the award in the past on three other occasions and are honoured to pick up the trophies again for another year.

At the awards ceremony, the Nikao Sokattak premier men's team took both the knockout and round cup trophies. The team will represent the Cook Islands at the Oceania Club Championships to be held in Fiji in early February 2006.

In the women's division, Arorangi won the round cup while Tupapa won the knockout trophy.

In the Senior Men's B division Takuvaine won both round and knockout competition trophies.

WORLD CUP DEVELOPMENT SQUADS ANNOUNCED

New Zealand Soccer has unveiled the first group of teenagers charged with turning the sport's World Cup dream into reality.

A total of 97 players have been selected in three squads - under-13 and under-15 boys and under-14 girls - as part of NZ Soccer's new World Cup development programme.

Complimenting the women's squad preparing for a tilt at August's under-20 World Championships in Russia, the World Cup development programme is designed to cash-in on Australia's departure to the Asian Football Confederation.

With the traditional roadblock to Fifa tournaments removed, New Zealand are determined to secure Oceania's berth at the next two under-17 boys World Cups in 2007 and 2009 and the inaugural under-17 girls World Championship in 2008.

The newly announced squads will assemble for the first time at Auckland's Kings College next month.

International opportunities will follow the January 26-29 camp while players will continue to be closely monitored by the network of national development officers and directors of football attached to NZ Soccer's seven federations.

Ricki Herbert, NZ Soccer's high performance manager, said the Fifa under-17 World Championship hosted by New Zealand in 1999 should serve as all the motivation the new squad members need to reach football's highest stages.

"Twenty-five thousand people packed out North Harbour Stadium for the final between Brazil and Australia and now we have a programme designed to give these players that sort of opportunity...what a dream that could be," Herbert said.

The makeup of the World Cup development squads was finalised after last week's Century Foundation national age-grade tournament in Napier but Herbert insists the door has not been shut on unsuccessful players.

"We're putting our hand up and saying we probably haven't got it 100 percent right. If we've found the best players now, fine. If it is next year, great. But if it is three months before the tournament then even better still," Herbert said.

"What we're saying is that we'll continue to scour the country for the best players to ensure we maximise this great opportunity. There will be an opportunity for players to be included and for others to be released."

NZ Soccer are close to confirming a series of offshore matches for the squads. Herbert, who doubles as the All Whites coach, sees that as the launching pad toward the 2010 senior men's World Cup in South Africa and beyond.

"Hopefully we'll breed a foundation of players that have played 30 or 40 international matches before they become an All White or a senior New Zealand women's player," Herbert said.

"You can link that back to the Socceroos' success [in qualifying for next year's World Cup in Germany]. A lot of their players have been to all these age-group World Cups so their understanding of international football is very clear."

NZ Soccer's immediate age-group focus is April's Oceania under-20 women's qualifying tournament in Samoa with New Zealand to be coached by John Herdman (NZ Soccer's manager of coach development) and former international Ali Grant (Canterbury).

The first Oceania assignment for the boys is the under-17 qualifying tournament scheduled for Tahiti in April, 2007. Colin Tuaa (Manawatu) has been appointed head coach with Clive Campbell (Auckland) named as his assistant.

NEW ZEALAND WORLD CUP DEVELOPMENT SQUADS

UNDER-13 BOYS

Gordon Murie, Jack Hobson-McVeigh, Rafi Mohammadi (North Shore City), Conor Von Keisenburg (Whangarei), Patrick George, Cameron Linsay, Ernesto Lopez, Zane Sole, Nick Paterson, Yuri Agarkov, Sean Lovemore, Thomas Doyle, Thomas Spragg, Kelly-Jack Martin (Auckland), John Duffield, Neko Vujevich, Adam Thomas, Jordan Shaw (Hamilton), Ben Hamer (Western BOP), Luis Esteves (Ngongataha), Nikolai Molijn (Rotorua), Stephen Kibby (Taranaki), Max Hall (Gisborne), Fergus Neil (Napier), Thomas Heaps, Francis Nono, Cameron Lidstone (Wellington), Coey Turepa (Nelson), Thomas Stanton (Christchruch), Aajay Cunningham, Michael Still, James Watson (Dunedin).

UNDER-15 BOYS

Dale Bennetto (Whangarei), Sam Hanna, Kris Carpenter, Mars Keomahavong, Ben McArdle, Aidan Wong, Jason Hicks, Mokhtar Mohammadi, Tom Smith (North Shore City), Heath Coleman, Otis Maddison, Jacob Mathews, Simon King, Nick Branch, Aaron Bawdekar, Pomare Te-Anau-Kumar, Colin Murphy, Timothy Myers, Isaac Fitzgerald (Auckland), Cory Chettleburgh (Palmerston North), Paul Junior Iosefo, Moses Petelo, Gareth James, Costa Barbarouses, Jake Gleeson, Sean O'Neill, Caleb Gaylan, Sam Morrissey (Wellington), Michael O'Keeffe (Blenheim), Joel Wiechens (Nelson), Hamish Chang, Adam Cowen, Ben Harris, Geoffrey MacIntyre (Christchurch).

UNDER-14 GIRLS

Lauren Mathis (Warkworth), Caitlin Campbell (Waitakere), Therese Saito, Danielle McFadyen, Rebecca Brown, Nikau Hindin, Annalie Longo (Auckland), Kelsie Mackintosh, Sarah McLaughlin (Hamilton), Kylie Jens, Jessica Rollings (Tauranga), Charlotte Wood (Rotorua), Kerri Gerrits (Ngaruawahia), Claudia Crasborn (Havelock North), Tam Wells (Gisborne), Meghan Sheppard (Napier), Leah Gallie (Palmerston North), Briana Watson (New Plymouth), Hannah Stotter, Hannah Wall, Yumi Nguyen, Amy Collins (Wellington), Maia Vink, Victoria Esson, Morghan Bradshaw, Aimee Phillips, Alana Ainsworth, Megan Shea, Gabrille Kerdemelidis (Christchurch), Eliza Sims, Elise Mamanu-Gray (Dunedin).

AUSTRALIA LEAVE ON TOP

Australia will leave the Oceania Football Confederation as the top ranked men's and women's sides after the release of the FIFA Women's World Rankings.

Up one place from September 2005, the Matildas now sit in fifteenth sport, with their nearest rivals New Zealand seven five places back (22). Tonga still heads the Pacific Island nations up two places and now ranked 53, ahead of Papua New Guinea (59), Fiji (74), Vanuatu (87), Cook Islands (100), Samoa (102).

Tahiti (99) now feature on the ranking list, but the remaining OFC nations of American Samoa, New Caledonia, and Solomon Islands remain unranked.

There are now 123 teams in the FIFA Women's World Ranking, which is calculated according to a number of factors, including match results, home advantage, significance of a match, and strength of the opposition.

The ranking list is published four times per year.

The third year-end FIFA Women's World Ranking is once again headed by world and European champions Germany. Success in this year's European Championship has doubled Germany's advantage over the American Olympic champions, while Norway (3) and Brazil (4) - the only South American team in the top ten - lie some way back in third and fourth respectively. The remaining places in the top ten are occupied by Sweden (5), Korea DPR (6), France (7), Denmark (8), China PR (9) and Italy (10).

The Best Mover of the Year comes from Asia, with Vietnam climbing seven places to 36 on the back of an impressive haul of points.

The next FIFA Women's World Ranking list will be published on March 17 2006.

FIFA Women's World Rankings (at December 2005

1. Germany

2. USA

3. Norway

4. Brazil

5. Sweden

6. Korea DPR

7. France

8. Denmark

9. China PR

10. Italy

15. Australia

22. New Zealand

53. Tonga

59. Papua New Guinea

74. Fiji

87. Vanuatu

99. Tahiti

100. Cook Islands

101. Samoa

Five teams will participate in the National Club Championship (NCC) early next year.

Ba's 4R Electric is the defending champion and will face Southern Forest Navua, Vinod Hire Delta Tigers, Jetset Nadi and General Machinery Lautoka.

Dee Cee Suva recently pulled out of the championships citing financial constraints.

Dee Cee's Suva secretary Alvin Sharma said the Whites could not afford to participate in another championship following a hectic season.

"We had spent a considerable amount of money on the promotion-relegation series (against Tailevu Naitasiri) and we need funds for next season's league games," he said.

The winner of the NCC will represent Fiji in the preliminary round of the 2006 Oceania Club Championships where it will face the champion clubs of Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

The tournament will be held at Govind Park in Ba, Fiji. The preliminary round winner will advance to the 2006 OFC Club Championships, New Zealand and join the champion clubs of New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Tahiti.

The winner of that tournament will earn the right to attend the FIFA Club World Championships Toyota Cup in Japan in December 2006 as Oceania's representative.

AUSTRALIA END YEAR ON TOP OF RANKINGS

Australia (48) ended the year as top ranked Oceania Football Confederation nation in the FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Rankings 72 places ahead of its nearest confedration challenger New Zealand (120=). Fiji (135) lie a further fifteen places back, with the Solomon Islands (140), Tahiti (141=), and Vanuatu (146) nipping at their heels to be the highest ranked Pacific Island nation.

Papua New Guinea (166) heads the developing OFC nations, ahead of Samoa (182), Tonga (185), New Caledonia (187), Cook Islands (194), and American Samoa (205) who remain in the bottom spot.

With twelve matches in the last 12 months, it is little wonder that the Socceroos head OFC nations, the only other national teams in action in 2005 were New Zealand (1 match), the Solomon Islands and Fiji (2 matches), again highlighting the absence of competitive matches.

Trinidad and Tobago were the most active team in 2005, contesting 28 matches. To date, a total of 743 matches have been played in 2005, which by FIFA standards means 2005 was rather 'quiet' in comparison to previous years. Almost half of the matches played were part of the preliminary competition for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany^TM (352).

And for the fourth year in a row, Brazil claimed the Top Team title after finishing the year at the top of the table, a position they resiliently held on to for the entire year.

Ghana eventually won the race for the Best Mover title, shaking off competition from Ethiopia and Togo, while Ethiopia stood out when it came to improving ranking position, climbing 39 places in 2005 to reach rank 112, with Togo (56) and Scotland (60) also gaining more than 25 ranking positions.

The next FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Ranking list will be published on 18 January 2006.

FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Rankings (ranking at November 2005)

1. Brazil (1)

2. Czech Rep. (2)

3. Netherlands (3)

4. Argentina (4)

5= Mexico (7)

5= Spain (6)

5= France (5)

8. USA (8)

9. England (9)

10. Portugal (10)

48. Australia (49)

120= New Zealand (118)

135. Fiji (136)

140. Solomon Islands (138)

141= Tahiti (140)

146. Vanuatu (148)

166. Papua New Guinea (164)

182. Samoa (180)

185. Tonga (184)

187. New Caledonia (185)

194. Cook Islands (194)

205. American Samoa (205)

The Ranking System

The FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Ranking evaluates all matches played by senior national teams (World Cup finals matches, World Cup premliminary matches, Confederation championship matches, Confederation championship preliminary matches, friendly matches).

The calculation of a team's points is based on the following six criteria;

1. Winning, drawing, and losing

2. Number of goals

3. Home or away match

4. Importance of match (multiplication factor)

5. Strength of the opponent

6. Regional strength (multiplication factor)

Historic hat trick for Prinz; Ronaldinho retains title

The coaches and captains of national teams all around the world have chosen to place the crowns back on the heads of last year's triumphant twosome, with Birgit Prinz (Germany) and Ronaldinho (Brazil) once again claiming the honours at the Zurich Opera House.

For the German striker, this year marked her third consecutive triumph, a unique feat in the history of the FIFA World Player Gala, which is now into its fifteenth year. Although Brazil's Ronaldo and France's Zinedine Zidane have both won the men's award on three separate occasions (in 1996, 1997, 2002 and in 1998, 2000, 2003 respectively), only Birgit Prinz has completed a hat trick in three consecutive years (2003, 2004, 2005), thereby underlining her reputation as a goalscorer of the highest order.

Ronaldinho, Barcelona's brilliant Brazilian magician, also received the ultimate personal accolade for the second consecutive year. He has enjoyed a spectacular year with both club (Spanish league champion with Barcelona) and country (FIFA Confederations Cup Germany 2005 winner with Brazil), and he will undoubtedly be one of the star turns at next year's FIFA World Cup^TM in Germany. He tallied 956 points, which was enough to see off the challenge of two "new pretenders" for the FIFA World Player crown - Frank Lampard of England and Chelsea (306 points) and Barcelona team-mate Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, 190 points).

In the women's category, Birgit Prinz (513 points) came out on top ahead of Brazil's Marta (429 points), who claimed second place after finishing third in the voting last year. The women's trio was completed by the USA's Shannon Boxx (235 points). All results are available on www.FIFA.com.

During the ceremony hosted by Lolita Morena (former Miss Switzerland turned TV presenter) and Ian Wright (former Arsenal FC footballer and now TV presenter), a number of other awards were presented. Joseph S. Blatter gave the FIFA Presidential Award to former Swedish international referee Anders Frisk, while the FIFA Fair Play Award was presented to the football community of the Peruvian city of Iquitos (see separate media releases). Finally, the FIFA Interactive World Player 2005, Chris Bullard, also received his award on stage at the Gala after winning the second FIFA Interactive World Cup in London yesterday.

This year's FIFA World Player Gala had a "Football meets Dance" theme with dance performances by the Zurich Ballet directed by Heinz Spoerli and set to music played by the Zurich Opera House's orchestra, which was conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.

The Gala was broadcast live or delayed in 160 countries, with 150 media representatives covering the ceremony from the Zurich Opera House.

Sydney FC finished the FIFA Club World Championships Toyota Cup in fifth spot after accouting for African champions Al Ahly (Egypt).

Check out the build-up and fall out here...

Ahly, Sydney prepare to fight until the end

Sydney seal fifth

For all the tournament information check out the official website, 2005 FIFA Club World Championships Toyota Cup

Nikao Sokattak make Oceania champs

Nikao has qualified for the Oceania Club Championships preliminary competition by winning the CIFA Round Cup championship this year.

The preliminary tournament is scheduled to be held in Fiji from 3 - 10 February 2006. Countries taking part are Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and the Cook Islands. The winner of the preliminary competition will go forward to the finals in Auckland, New Zealand from 10 - 12 May 2006.

The Oceania Club Championships will now be an annual event for all clubs to aspire to by winning the round cup competition.

Tupapa attended the first competition in 2000 after qualifying in 1999. There was a break up until 2004 when Nikao Sokattak qualified as winners and attended the competition this year.

The road to the Oceania preliminary competition for Nikao Sokattak this year was paved with 10 wins and one draw in the round cup and they don't even have to win the last match on Saturday.

The next three teams, Tupapa, Matavera, and Takuvaine, certainly didn't make it easy and kept the contest very competitive.

So much so that even the second place team position will be decided in the last few games at the end of the week. Congratulations to Nikao Sokattak. - CIFA

A second-half strike from Christian Bolanos handed Deportivo Saprissa victory over Australia's Sydney FC in the quarter-final of the FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup Japan 2005 at the Toyota Stadium last night.

Click the links for coverage from the official FIFA website;

Saprissa's experience just too much for Sydney FC

Medford: Nothing is easy but nothing's impossible either

Bolaños: This was for my father