The course was declared open by Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) general secretary, Eddie Ngava, with a challenge for the participants to gather as much knowledge from the training and contribute to football development in their clubs and their communities.
“It is pleasing to see for the first time that there are more women than men in a course for women’s football. Your role in football has transformed over the years from just supporting on the sidelines to the stage where you became players and now you will become trainers of football,” Ngava says.
“You must all learn from this course and put your knowledge into your club and your communities. At the end of this course, I expect to see a difference in the way that you deliver football training in your communities.”
The OFC women’s development officer Nicola Demaine is the lead instructor and she will be supported by local coaching instructors Gideon Omokirio and Diane Justus from the SIFF technical department.
In her address at the opening ceremony, Demaine, highlighted FIFA’s commitment to the development of women’s football throughout the world and thanked the participants for taking the time and effort to be part of the endeavour.
“The success of women’s football in the recent years has resulted in a call for more time and effort to be given to the women’s game and FIFA is striving to take it forward in all parts of the world. This week’s course is precursor since more programs will be coming in the future,” Demaine says.
“I want to thank all the participants for your commitment and I hope that you can learn much from this course that can help you to help your communities. I truly hope to be of assistance to you all throughout this week.”
This course was originally scheduled to be held in November 2011 but was postponed due to security concerns following the change of government that took place then. OFC then rescheduled the course for 2012 and confirmed last month for it to take place this week.
Twenty plus participants registered for the course which will take place throughout the week and conclude on Friday. Included in the list are 2 LEARN&play coaches from Malaita based at Aligegeo Secondary School, Timaeus Waledala and Charles Irobina, who were selected for their work with female students studying under the football scholarship scheme managed by SIFF.
The majority of the participants are female and this marks the increased participation of women in the development role since football for women was formally adopted in Solomon Islands in 1999. The introduction of futsal and other programs such as LEARN&play and Just Play has also boosted the involvement of women in football.