Solomon Islands is close to announce new head coach thanks to partnership with La Liga

The search for a new head coach for the Solomon Islands national team is close to have an end. Recently, the Solomon Islands football federation official media stated the governing body already selected from a bunch of 45 applicants the new head coach of its national team. “The President [of SIFF] will announce that in a later date. We have received 45 applications from all over the World since the post was advertised. The selection criteria is based on Qualification, Experience in working in the region including Solomon Islands”, stated SIFF Technical Director Moses Toata to SIFF media.

The U17 national team head coach Stanley Waita and Henderson Eels’ coach Eddie Marahare were in charge of the national team during a period of trainings that was forced to be interrupted due the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, It is expected with the announcement of the new head coach, both coaches will assume assisting positions in the technical staff.

Moses Toata also added SIFF is dealing with the costs to bring a foreign coach to the country, and talked about the difficulties in financial terms to complete the operation: “At the moment SIFF is also looking at a partnership with La Liga to help meet the cost of hiring the coach for a longer-term“, said the Techincal Director, “In the past the cost of hiring overseas coach for a short term is 10,000 Euros per month plus accomodation, internal transport and flights to the country and return“, mentioned Toata.

According to the media release, the partnership with La Liga – Spanish top-tier league – development project is making possible to match the costs of the process. Due this partnership, it is expected Solomon Islands might have a coach from Spain – something that would not be new for SIFF since the Spaniard Felipe Vega-Arango recently coached and hold the Technical Direction of the governing body in the last FIFA World Cup qualifiers campaign of OFC.

SIFF media also remembered that “Meanwhile, football is still halted for an indefinite period in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic“. SIFF also urged all players in the Solomon Islands to continue their exercises in order to keep their fitness in a good level.