President Temarii and the OFC delegation spent time in the country from September 20 to 23 and the purpose of their visit was to put a programme in place for the development of football, futsal and beach soccer in the Solomons for the next eight years, from 2011 to 2018.
With a provisional budget estimated at 160 million NZD for the Pacific during this period, FIFA and OFC have pledged to give 10 million NZD to the Solomon Islands.
There are six main areas that have been singled out: To promote and develop futsal in schools, to improve the federation’s management and the structure of its leagues and clubs, to set up futsal and beach soccer elite programmes to allow the federation’s national teams to progress to the FIFA top ten, to develop a communications strategy (including new media, television, radio and print), to restructure local and regional competitions, and to build three regional technical centres (in Honiara, Gizo and Auki).
The programmes relating to the achievement of these goals will tie in with the ‘OFC Vision 2018’, the confederation’s long-term strategic plan.
The ambition of OFC is to increase the number of people involved in football in the Pacific region to 1.4 million participants (10 per cent of the Pacific population) from the current 574,000 (4.7 per cent).
But it is not just on the pitch that President Temarii would like to see things progress. OFC also has an important social responsibility and, during his meetings with Vice Prime Minister Manasseh Maelanga and Minister of Education Dick Ha’amauri, President Temarii stressed the fact that these programmes have to be part of the government’s plans for education, public health, environment protection, economical development, social integration and good governance.
OFC have also signed partnership agreements with the Solomon Islands’ National Olympic Committe and the Sports National Committee to help organise the Pacific Mini Games in 2017.