Being a soccer fanatic I was saddened by the unfortunate withdrawal of our SI under 17 boys from the Oceania Championship. However, I tend to believe otherwise that the withdrawal was justified/timely not necessarily on financial side but lack of preparation and organised youth league or competition for that matter, to enable a strong contestation rather than merely to participate or entertain as usually the case.

It is a pity that SIFF has decided to kick off youth league/competition in Honiara for this year despite Oceania tournaments are hanging in front of them. These youth competition should have been the building block for the senior team; should be there at the first place, every year. We have these kinds of competition in early nineties and the results were fantastic. Similarly, look the age composition of our national futsal team, a classic example of youth development.