Eddie Ngava revealed in a press conference that HFA's champion club will not be eligible to participate in this years' national club Championship.
Makuru who is likely to take out the minor premiers of the HFA premier division has been ruled out of the competition due to a number of reasons.Mr. Eddie Ngava told the media that Makuru's exclusion is a result of them breaching an important condition under the Oceania and SIFF statues. The statue states that all affiliated member of Oceania or SIFF must not take the mother body to court. Since, Makuru went on with a legal proceeding against SIFF last year, it breached the statue and SIFF therefore has no choice but to penalize Makuru by excluding it from participating in any SIFF organized competition. It was for this penalty that Makuru was ruled out to represent Solomon Islands last year.
The general secretary told journalist that apart from the legal issue, SIFF was also unhappy with Makuru's management over its lack of commitment to settle outstanding bills when it last represented Solomon Islands in the Oceania club championship in Tahiti, 2005.
Makuru's exclusion will certainly upset a number of Makuru's diehard fans who were expecting to see their club participate in the tournament. When asked why not penalize Makuru later if it wins the tournament, the general secretary was adamant and told journalists that Makuru was lucky to have taken part in this year's HFA league.
"If SIFF is very strict we would not have allowed Makuru's participation at all in the HFA league. The HFA is sanctioned by SIFF and therefore we see that we were a bit lenient to them in allowing them to participate. But when it comes to any SIFF organized tournament that is when we will enforce the penalty".