OFC Auckland: The Tonga Football Association reaches a milestone this Saturday, 29 May when their FIFA Goal Project is inaugurated. It will be the sixth FIFA Goal Project inaugurated in the Oceania region.
Situated in Atele just outside of Nuku’alofa, the Tongan capital, the FIFA funded facilities include the new Tonga FA headquarters, an academy and four international standard playing fields.
Among the list of invited guests is the King of Tonga, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. Various other officials and delegates will also be present. The OFC Acting General Secretary, Tai Nicholas and FIFA Development Officer for Oceania, Glenn Turner will also attend.
Saturday’s inauguration will be the second FIFA Goal Project for Oceania opened in 2004 following the Cook Islands Goal Project inauguration in April.
Samoa, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea are other Oceania Football Confederation members to have completed facilities under the FIFA Goal Programme, the brainchild of current FIFA President, Joseph Sepp Blatter.
Goal Projects have since been awarded to Vanuatu, Tahiti, American Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. New Caledonia is the only full member yet to receive a FIFA Goal Project. The french territory has only just been accepted as FIFA’s 205th member national association last weekend at the 54th FIFA Ordinary Congress in Paris, France.