Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) will assist Bouganville and parts of Vanuatu develop their football. SIFF president Martin Alufurai made this revelation in his opening address on Friday saying that an understanding was reached with the OFC and the two football associations of PNG and Vanuatu of SIFF’s intention to extend its football development programme beyond its own regional boundaries.
Alufurai says the agreement to include Bouganville was reached recently when he and SIFF General Secretary Eddie Ngava attended the OFC Congress in Port Moresby.
Under this arrangement, SIFF will assist the two national associations develop their technical capability.
OFC President and FIFA vice president Reynald Temarii visited Bougainville shortly after the OFC Congress in PNG and was moved by the role football was playing in the reconciliation process in the region and has committed to sending an U16 boy’s team to Zurich for a youth tournament to help mark the opening of FIFA House in Zurich, Switzerland, in May 2007.
Story courtesy of SIFF Media Officer Francis Pituvaka