The 2020 edition of Shefa Futsal League reached its end in Vanuatu. The tournament was contested by 13 teams that were divided in four groups.
The league started on May 29 with the group stage matches and finished on this Wednesday when Huka FC beat Arab6Y by 5-1 in the final to clinch the title. George Mani led Huka to the title by scoring a hat-trick. The other goals were scored by Terry Bong and Ritchie Toka.
Goalkeeper Christopher Quai also played an important role in the match by making some good saves during the final clash.
Huka FC won the tournament
Oceania Football Center congratulates all teams specially league champions Huka FC. It is very nice to see futsal growing in Oceanian countries.
It was previously announced that the Papua New Guinea National Soccer League would resume in July. However the National Soccer League board announced that they want 2019/20 National Soccer League season resuming on August 1.
According to Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA), with this new date for season’s resumption, the final match must take place on October 3.
The National Soccer League is likely to resume in August, and not in July
The league is stopped since March and there are eight matchweeks remaining before the knockout stage. Vitiaz United is currently leading the ladder with 25 points followed by Hekari United and Lae City with 23 points each. You can check the full standings by clicking here.
Jean-Philippe Saïko is back in New Caledonian football – the striker will play for Mobil Super Ligue AS Lössi after a successful New Zealand campaign for Tasman United. The New Caledonian international has decided to play for Lössi, but the reasons are not just in football: the player cannot return to New Zealand because the country’s international borders are still closed to prevent COVID-19 from returning to the country.
“It happened when I came to New Caledonia in March in order to travel to Europe to play an international friendly,” said Saïko. The friendly against Estonia was cancelled, the borders of New “It happened when I came to New Caledonia in March to travel to Europe for an international friendly match,” Jean-Philippe Saïko said. The friendly match against Estonia was cancelled, New Zealand’s borders were closed and Saïko was unable to return to the country. “I asked for Tasman and North Wellington if I could play here for AS Lössi during this time. I have to wait for my return so I can keep fit,” the player explained. Saïko was due to play for North Wellington in the Central League during the New Zealand winter season – he played for Tasman United in the ISPS Handa Premiership and was the team’s top scorer this season.
Saïko in Tasman colours
The striker also mentioned teams such as AS Tiga and AS Magenta asked him to join their squad for the Mobil Super Ligue, which is due to return in August this year. “I turned down the opportunity to play for AS Tiga and AS Magenta. I wanted to play for AS Lössi because they are from the island where I come from,” the striker explained.
Saïko also said he expected to return to North Wellington to help them in the Central League, but it is uncertain whether New Zealand’s borders would be reopened soon or not. “If it opens before September I will go to Wellington, if not I will move back to Nelson to play for Tasman in thesummer,” the New Caledonian international said.
Saïko already played eleven times for New Caledonia and helped them to earn silver in the last edition of the Pacific Games held in Samoa in 2019. The striker impressed in his first season in New Zealand, being the most influential player of Tasman United in their best ever campaign at ISPS Handa Premiership.
The future of Fijian football seems bright when it comes to potential international players. Recently, Oceania Football Center introduced Ryan Mudaliar, a young Australian-Fijian goalkeeper who plays at NPL level in Australia. In addition to Mudaliar, another talented young Fijian could be moving to Australia soon, as former Ba Academy defender Rahul Naresh is being scouted by Australia’s top club Melbourne Victory.
Rahul Naresh played the last edition of OFC U16 Championship held in Solomon Islands and recently the 17-year-old player moved to New Zealand to represent the Auckland-based side Manukau United alongside other Fijians such as Etonia Dogalau and Kishan Sami.
According to 1 News, Manukau United is allowing many Pacific Islanders to enter their youth and senior squads. Also in the report, It is said Naresh is being scouted by an A-League that is known to be Melboune Victory. The current club of Naresh and his compatriots are set to start their campaign at Lotto NRFL Premier League this weekend.
Auckland United FC is one of the newest football teams in New Zealand. The club was born this year after an amalgamation between neighbouring clubs Three Kings United and Onehunga Sports FC was approved by members in late 2019.
It was announced by the club on social media that Monty Patterson has joined the club to play 2020 winter football season. Patterson is a 24-year-old winger that last played for Honefoss from Norway.
Monty Patterson
Patterson is back to a football team from his homeland after two years. He is a versatile player winger that can play on both sides. He has already represented New Zealand National Football Team in 15 opportunities and scored one goal.
It was previously reported that 26-year-old defensive midfielder Harry Edge was close to represent Malaysia internationally. However he decided not to represent Malaysia and only want to focus on his club career at the moment.
Harry was born in New Zealand but he is eligible to represent Malaysia because his father Declan was born there.
Harry Edge
The defensive midfielder is currently playing for Torslanda IK from Sweden. He went to Europe last year after helping the Eastern Suburbs to clinch the 2018-19 ISPS Handa Premiership title.
In the last week Oceania Football Center released an article talking about Ryan Mudaliar, a 18-year-old goalkeeper from Australia whose parents are from Fiji. We made a brief introdution about him and we also pointed that Fiji Football Association and National Team’s head coach Flemming Serritslev should pay attention on him because he is a very talented player.
After that, Oceania Football Center got in touch with the player. Mudaliar talked about his career in football since the first steps in the childhood and he also pointed some important things about the possibility of representing Fiji internationally. Scroll down and check!
Currently playing for Brisbane Strikers U20, the young goalkeeper revealed that he used to play in another position when he was younger – “I was a field player for many years. I used to play as left midfielder and striker. It has been seven or eight years since I became a goalkeeper“.
Despite being very young, he has a good experience as he has already trained and played some youth tournaments in Europe – “Over the past years I have gone overseas on tournaments and training camps to play against European sides. Thus far I played against teams such as Nuremberg and Hertha Berlin from Germany and Liverpool from England,” he said. Mudaliar spent some time training in England in 2018 when he was one of the fourteen players chosen to train at West Ham United. He also spent two weeks training with Crystal Palace – “I had the opportunity to play for Crystal Palace U-20 in a friendly game,” he explained.
His experience in Europe made him notice some important things like the gap between Europe and Australia – “From what I have seen, the standard in Europe is higher than in Australia. I lost almost all matches I played there and it gave me a good taste of what the world has to offer. It has given me a stronger idea of where I need to be if I want to make my dreams real,” he pointed.
Currently in Australia, the young goalkeeper is working hard to make the next level and be a professional player – “I have signed for Brisbane Strikers this year […] I train with the first team and compared to youth football it has a faster pace and you do not want to mess up or slow down the drill so it forces you to get to that level and that speed,” he stated.
Mudaliar is working hard to reach the next level
Mudaliar is a regular starter in the Strikers U-20 team and now he is just one step away from being a footballer at senior level as he is Strikers’ back-up goalkeeper in NPL Queensland – one of the leagues that are part of Australian National Premier Leagues – “I have been eagerly waiting for my opportunity to play in the first team but all I can do is keep working hard together with my excellent goalkeeper coach Fernando Alves and the staff to help me keep improving to grab the opportunity when it comes” he added.
The young player from Brisbane Strikers has never represented Australia internationally which means that he is still eligible to represent Fiji internationally. However the Fiji Football Association (FFA) is not in contact with him at the moment – “I have not been in contact with Fiji FA but playing for a National Team is one of my goals. Representing a nation is a massive achievement and whether that be me playing Fiji or Australia I would love the opportunity,” he revealed – “But for now all I can do is put my head down and make sure I will keep working hard to make sure I will be ready to take the next step,” he complemented.
Mudaliar leaves the door open for Fiji which means that he has some interest on representing his parents country. Now it is time to check what FFA is going to do about it.
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.
Solomon Islands national team in 2017 Mini Pacific Games – Simon Abana
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?
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.
Henderson Eels and Solomon Warriors playing in a Telekom S-League match – S-League Media
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.
Football is slowly resuming in Vanuatu. The sporting activities were cleared to resume in April and Vanuatu Football Federation (VFF) confirmed that football leagues are allowed to resume from July 1st on in the country.
Many local teams are already back to training, including 2020 OFC Champions League participants Galaxy FC and Malampa Revivors. Galaxy is ready to play a friendly match against Erakor Golden Star this weekend.
Galaxy and Erakor will clash in a friendly match. Source: Vanuatu Sports News
The match is scheduled to take place at Port Vila Stadium on Saturday at 2pm. Both teams have good campaigns in 2019-20 Port Vila Premier League and now it is time to focus on football again. You can check the current Premier League standings by clicking here.
Malakai Rakula is one of the Manukau United’s foreign players for this winter football season in New Zealand. However the 28-year-old midfielder is currently facing a difficult situation due to border controls.
Despite being completely free from COVID-19, New Zealand will keep the restrictions to prevent new outbreaks and it includes the strict border controls and the Fijian player can not return to New Zealand at this moment due to this situation.
Rakula waits for borders to open in New Zealand
Rakula joined his new team in February but he returned to Fiji during the lockdown. Despite being unable to return to the country at this moment he remains as part of Manukau United squad and he will rejoin the team when the borders reopen.
