More than forty participants graduated from the Basic Futsal Refereeing course held in Honiara last week.
The 5-day long course ended on Friday with a closing ceremony in which the participants were handed their Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) Basic Futsal Refereeing certificates.The completion of the course comes as SIFF prepares to organize the first ever Futsal championships in March.
The initiative, is hoped, will qualify Solomon Islands for FIFA and Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Futsal refereeing courses under the FIFA Referee Assistance Program.
With the certificate the referees now qualify to officiate in local league matches and in national competitions.
This will also address the shortage of Futsal referees in the country as was experienced in the Honiara Men’s Futsal League in 2009.
Speaking at the closing the ceremony, the SIFF Vice President, Stanley Siapu, congratulated the participants and thanked them for taking the initiative to attend the course.
“Football creates opportunities and your goals in Futsal will be achieved by hard work,” Siapu said to the participants.
The course was attended mostly by participants based in Honiara. However, a number of participants from the provinces were able to attend including 5 from Guadalcanal, 2 from South Malaita and 1 from Yandina in the Central Province.
Also among the participants were 2 women who are now the first ever qualified women Futsal referees in the Solomon Islands. Esther Ririmae and Naqarita Jimmy now join what SIFF hopes will be a growing number of local Futsal referees.
One of the participants, Philemon Kaola, said that the course is an eye opener for him. He also said that with his training he will be able to assist youth in his community better understanding the Futsal Laws of the Game.
“I also hope that I can network with the other participants so that we can organize inter-community Futsal matches,” Kaola said.
The course was led by FIFA Sub-regional Futsal Referee Instructors Justin Mutukera and Victor Waiia. The SIFF Small Sided Games Development Officer, Victor Waiia, also said that there would be a Futsal coaching course later this year. - SIFF MEDIA
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