Solomon Islands: more football and less politics, please!

Football has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; many important events have been postponed or cancelled – such as the OFC Nations Cup – and football leagues have had to be put on ice. Unlike Asia, America and Europe, Oceania was not as badly affected by the disease, with places like Fiji and Papua New Guinea reporting very few cases, but both countries are already COVID-19-free.

The Solomon Islands, one of the most important members of the Oceania Football Confederation, were also forced to put their national team camp on hold and postpone youth tournaments. Now, more than two months before the outbreak began, Solomon Islands remains a rare example of a place where no COVID-19 cases have been recorded – it is truly a COVID-19-free country.

Despite the good example set by Solomon Islands, sport must still not be practised. The unusual thing about the situation is that schools are being reopened, pubs and public markets are already open, and while football and other sports continue to be banned by the Solomon Islands government.

Like all wise governments around the world, Solomon Islands have adopted practices of social distancing to avoid crowds – something that could cause the virus to spread. But since the country remains safe from COVID-19, and markets and schools are already allowed to function normally again, places where crowds are very common, why are not football and other sporting activities allowed?

It is known that the Telekom S-League, the highest ranking football league in the country, will start its season in August this year, as SIFF recently announced. The problem, which has already been openly discussed in the Solomon Islands football community, is that the country’s main venue, the Lawson Tama Stadium, is closed to all kinds of sporting activities. This situation does not allow any of the country’s football clubs to prepare for the S-League, as many of the country’s sports fields are also being repaired for the Pacific Games in 2023, event that Solomon Islands is going to host.

Recently, the Lawson Tama Stadium hosted a master football tournament; the event was approved by the Solomon Islands government as it was a social football competition. However, subsequent political influences led the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) to cancel all social games and football related activities at Lawson Tama Stadium.

The majority of the Solomon Islands football community supports the restart of football, what would enable the teams to prepare properly for the start of the Telekom S-League in August. There are serious concerns about whether the league can start as planned if the clubs cannot be fully prepared for the kick-off of the national league.

Despite the support of the local community and the people involved in the management of football in the country, there are some voices that rise up against the majority: The most prominent of these is the CEO of the Solomon Islands Football Association, Leonard Paia, who supports the government’s decision to maintain sports restrictions. Paia is owner of one of Telekom S-League clubs, Real Kakamora, which finished at the bottom of the national league standings in the last edition suffering some double-digit defeats in the process.

While this impasse remains an obstacle to the continue the practice of football in the country, SIFF announced a partnership with an Australian company for the development of the design for the Lawson Tama Stadium expansion project. As mentioned earlier, the country is due to host the next edition of the Pacific Games in 2023, and new venues and repairs to existing facilities will be required – something that could pose another problem for the clubs operating in the national sports leagues during the construction and repair process.

When bureaucracy talks louder than football, something really does not seem to work quite well. The same country that produced players like Henry Fa’arodo and Batram Suri now hopes to continue the process of developing talented young players like Raphael Lea’i and Leon Kofana, but while politics somehow continue to be an obstacle to the good practice of the game, Solomon Islands will not be ready to move on to the next level.