The final team was named by the appointed national head coach Airton Andrioli on Friday last week.

The team:

1. Shedrack Ramoni Gk

2. Leon Lekezoto Gk

3. Haddis Aengari Def

4. Aenold Keni Def

5. Gibson Daudau Def

6. Welshman Houkarawa Def

7. Joachim Waroi Def

8. Francis Saemala Def

9. Lenson Bisili M/F

10. Gibson Hosea M/F

11. Molis Gagame M/F

12. Ramptony Lohe M/F

13. Moffat Deramoa M/F

14. Patrick Miniti Jr M/F

15. Joses Nawo Striker

16. John Manebona Striker

17. Judd Molea Striker

18. Bentley Nalagu Striker

19. Joachim Rande Striker

20. Toni Otini Striker

Team Officials:

1. Stanley Siapu Head of Delegation

2. Airton Andrioli Head Coach

3. Jacob Moli Asst. Coach

4. Toata Molea Team Manager

5. Joe Gwala'a Physiotherapist

Auckland City's FIFA Club World Cup campaign will only get tougher following the completion of the tournament's second quarter-final.

CONCACAF champions Club America edged out AFC champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC 1-0 in a tense clash to take their place in the semi-finals where they will meet Barcelona.

Auckland City will meet Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC in the match for 5th place this Friday night(11pm NZT). Auckland City coach Allan Jones is expecting an even tougher match against the South Koreans.

"They're a better structured side than Al Ahly and to a man they are athletically superb," Jones said of Jeonbuk who were undone by Ricardo Rojas's 79th minute winner for Club America.

"They're in magnificent physical condition, are quick all over the field and are far from a small side with six of their starting XI all well over 1.80m tall...it's going to be a huge challenge."

Jones eyes Jeonbuk

Brazilian Airton Andrioli wasted no time since he arrived to take up the National coach position which has been vacant for some time by going straight into business.

He had his first session with the boys on Thursday last week - an hour after he arrived in Honiara.

His arrival and appointment ended months of speculation about his engagement for country's top coaching job.

He told local journalists who met him on his arrival that he would like to go straight into business.

His immediate task was to cut the team down to the final 20 players and he was able to do that after seeing the players play in two sessions. Caretaker coach Patrick Miniti assisted him to identify the final team.

Besides the national Under 20, the Brazilian's other assignments will be to prepare the national Under 17 for the OFC qualifying tournament in Tahiti in March 2007 and the senior national team participation in the Pacific Games in Samoa.

Andrioli has always been SIFF's top choice and he will be on a one-year contract renewable.

With more regional tournaments next year, his engagement will boost Solomon Islands chances to qualify in the various competitions.

Auckland City went down fighting against Al-Ahly in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. Auckland - who turned in a gritty performance - held the CAF champions to a goaless first half until strikes from Angolan international striker Flavino and playmaker Mohamed Aboutrika broke Kiwi hearts.

Auckland's tough lesson

Allan Jones went on a charm offensive Thursday as FIFA Club World Cup debutants Auckland City were unveiled to a curious Japanese media.

Auckland's 66-year-old caretaker coach used humour to put his side's tournament opener against Cairo giants Al Ahly into context at the Kiwitea St club's official arrival media conference in Nagoya.

A Japanese television journalist asked the Englishman whether Auckland City had truly believed it was possible to play at the Club World Cup, how significant their qualification was for New Zealand Soccer and how many people turned up for their send-off at Auckland International Airport.

Jones waited for an interpreter to translate the long-winded line of questioning before giving a quick-fire response.

"One, yes. Two, very greatly and three, no one!"

Jones Wins Over Japanese Media

Successful candidates for the Managers' positions which SIFF advertised recently should be known at the end of the week.

Nine short listed applicants were interviewed today by a panel which includes SIFF President Martin Alufurai, SIFF Vice President Stanley Siapu, SIFF General Secretary Eddie Ngava and Development officer Noel Wagapu.

The positions that are vacant are for the senior national (men & women), national U-20 and U-17 teams.

SIFF has taken this approach in its effort to be transparent allowing members of the public to apply for these positions.

Previously, managers of the nationals teams were handpicked however, the secretariat believes in giving equal opportunity to those deemed fit to fill in the positions.

Short-listed applicants for the position of assistant coach will be interviewed on Monday

Brazilian, Airton Andrioli will arrive tomorrow to finalise arrangements for the possibility of taking up an appointment as the Solomon Islands National head coach.

He previously coached the Solympic team and his most recent assignment was when he coached the senior national side for the World Cup play off with Australia.

Andrioli's appointment came after months of speculation about his coming here.

Interest in the country's top coaching job has received queries from several people abroad - as far as Europe.

However, Andrioli remains SIFF's top choice because of his reputation and affordability.

His immediate task upon arrival, if appointed, is to take charge of the national Under 20 squad preparation for the Oceania qualifiers in Auckland New Zealand in January.

Marist FC train on squad begins training

The Marist FC train-on squad begins its first training run this afternoon under the watchful eyes of head Coach Patrick Miniti.

Marist FC will be competing in the new Oceania Champion's league and is being pooled along with champion clubs from Fiji and Tahiti.

The OFC has slightly changed the format of competition with home and away matches for participating clubs instead of having all them competing in one venue.

This new arrangement provides opportunity for participating clubs to play in front of their own home crowd and also raise much needed revenue through gate-takings.

Meanwhile, Marist's first match will be against Fiji's champion club, Ba in Fiji.

Auckland City got a taste of things to come at the FIFA Club World Cup within minutes of touching down in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Allan Jones' side hadn't even cleared customs before being caught on camera by a fascinated Japanese media corp keen to capture the arrival of the Kiwi amateurs ahead of Sunday's tournament opener against African champions Al Ahly (Egypt).

More media were waiting in Narita airport's arrival area with the home-coming of Auckland's Japanese import Teruo Iwamoto understandably creating the most interest.

The 34-year-old, who scored two goals in nine appearances for Japan, is a household name in Japan after starring in a television series before linking with the NZFC and Oceania Champions for his short pre-Christmas stint.

Lights, camera, action for Auckland City

FIFA's Executive Committee has announced the pathway to the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM in South Africa following a two-day meeting in Zurich, with OFC's qualification route confirmed as a three phase process.

The announcement was made by the FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich under the chairmanship of FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.

The OFC's qualification process will consist of three phases.

The first phase will begin at the 2007 South Pacific Games in Samoa with the football tournament doubling as an OFC preliminary World Cup qualifying competition. The gold, silver and bronze medallists will advance to the second phase.

The three medallists will join New Zealand in a home and away round-robin tournament on FIFA match dates in 2007 and 2008.

The winner of this final group will be crowned OFC Nations Cup champions and secure qualification for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa.

This team will then advance to third qualification phase in the final group stage of the AFC qualification programme.

Previously OFC's qualifier has been required to playoff against the 5th placed team in CONMEBOL (South America).

The dates for the final competition of the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM were set for 11 June to 11 July 2010. The allocation of places will be the same as for 2006, i.e. Europe: 13; Africa: 5; Asia and Oceania: 5 (4.5 + 0.5; play-off); South America and CONCACAF: 8 (4.5 + 3.5; play-off); hosts (South Africa): 1.

The preliminary competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM will be played in the confederations as follows:

- Africa: the qualifying competition for the African Cup of Nations will once again be combined with the preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup^TM (start date: 13/14 October 2007).

- South America: the league system will once again be used (home and away matches) for a single group of 10 associations, but only double-header dates will be used.

The provisional start date is September/October 2007.

- Oceania: in three phases, as for 2006. The first phase will be combined with the South Pacific Games 2007 and the OFC Nations Cup 2008, and the winning team will enter a group in Asia's final round.

- Asia, Europe, CONCACAF: in groups that have yet to be determined.

The preliminary draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM will be held in Durban on 23 November 2007, and the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 will be held in the five venues of Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg (Ellis Park), Pretoria and Rustenburg from 14 to 27 June.

With regard to the 2014 FIFA World Cup^TM, which in accordance with the rotation policy and a decision passed by the Executive Committee in May 2002 is to be held in South America, the committee opened the official bidding procedure for South American member associations.

If only one association submits a bid, and if this association meets all requirements, the procedure will be accelerated. The FIFA Executive Committee will reach a decision on the host country in November 2007.

The FIFA Executive Committee also decided that payments from the FIFA Financial Assistance Programme were suspended until further notice for 59 member associations that still have not submitted their statutes to FIFA for inspection.

This decision affects 22 associations from Asia, 14 from Africa, 7 from North America, Central America and the Caribbean, 3 from South America and 13 from Europe. The OFC was the only confederation who has all countries that satisfied the Statutes revision

Fiji Football Association (Fiji FA) officials will meet tomorrow to decide whether the National Club championship will be played in the weekend.

Chief executive officer Bob Kumar said Fiji FA was closely monitoring the standoff between the government and the Fiji Military Forces.

"We have not postponed the NCC meet as yet, the situation in the country will be reviewed tomorrow and that's when we hope to make a final decision,'' Kumar said.

"Club officials have been enquiring with us on a daily basis and we've advised them to continue with their preparations until Fiji FA makes an official announcement to defer the meet.''

"If the situation worsens we'll be forced to postpone the NCC indefinitely.''

He said pool draws would be held later in the week.

Meanwhile Nadi club Gandhi FC will play in the NCC finals for the first time ever after Fiji FA ruled a protest in its favour.

Gandhi FC officials presented documentary evidence that proved Flying Arrows of Vatukoula fielded Tevita Namataga without proper clearance from the Lautoka club Golf Link United.

Rewa clubs United and Raymonds along with Nasinu's Barbarians have qualified from the southern zone while Gandhi FC joins reigning champions GM United (Lautoka) and Flying Arrows of Ba from western zone.

Matei FC of Taveuni is the lone representative from the north.

The two-day NCC meet is scheduled to be played at the Bidesi and Buckhurst grounds from Saturday.

The Futuro III Administration and Management Refresher Course concluded in Auckland on Thursday with course participants more than happy with the efforts of FIFA Instructors Juerg Nepfer, Lionel Haven and Nicos Kartakoullis.

American Samoa's Finance and Administration Officer, Tevita Taumua, described the course as "invaluable".

"It's been a very good group of people to work with. Marketing is a very new concept for us and the Futuro III course has shown the course participants how to apply these ideas to improving our associations as a business."

FIFA Instructor Nicos Kartakoullis said the theories and ideas introduced at the course were obviously new to many course participants but he was hopeful OFC members would take up the challenge in front of them.

"Of course the OFC can be very successful with these principles and concepts. For example, in CAF (Confederation of African Football), in some cases, they have even less infrastructure and resources to work with. I am hopeful that we have empowered course participants to at least try to apply these ideas. If they try and it doesn't work, that is ok, but making the effort is still important."

Nicos Kartakoullis pointed to other examples of island nations that experienced relative success despite similar challenges.

"Cyprus is a good case in point. It is an island nation with limited resources but recently they have taken on board seven sponsors. On the pitch, too, Cyprus has experienced good success against Germany and Ireland. So it can be done."

Juerg Nepfer echoed these sentiments.

"I think compared to one year ago this course has seen a much higher level of understanding amongst course participants. We developed many of our concepts further and now there is an opportunity for MAs within the OFC to perform in these key administration and management areas."

Nepfer added that the course struck the right balance between classroom activity and leisure activity that created an atmosphere conducive to learning.

"There is a lot of material to get through in an intensive course. We covered everything we wanted too and balanced it out with some football and a barbeque that helped build a team atmosphere. There was time to relax, but not too much time to relax!"

Nepfer said it was challenging delivering material to such wide ranging levels of ability.

"Now it depends on the course participants to take this information forward and to find the next steps for their associations. FIFA and OFC are here to help, of course,

Papua New Guinea General Secretary Dimirit Mileng said the course had been very useful.

"We talk about the professionalisation of how football is played. But we do not often discuss professionalisation of football as a product or business. This course has changed my perspective on how to manage football in this regard and I feel I have gained many benefits from my attendance."

FIFA Development Officer Glenn Turner described the MAs as part of a wider family.

"OFC is a football family; we are here to work hard, here to have fun; and we have achieved a lot of good quality work through the duration of this refresher course. We're lucky to have achieved such a lot in a hospitable and friendly atmosphere."