New futsal court a ‘miracle’ for the Solomon Islands

A pledge by world football governing body FIFA to financially support the construction of a new Futsal court in the Solomon Islands’ capital of Honiara have been described as a “miracle” by Solomon Islands futsal coach Juliano Schmeling.

The news comes after the Solomon Islands’ team, known as the Kurukuru, won their fifth straight Oceania Football Confederation title to qualify for FIFA’s Futsal World Cup in September.

Following that triumph the Solomon Islands Government undertook to build a proper Futsal facility – a project that will now receive financial support from FIFA’s Development Committee under the framework of the FIFA Challenger Program.

Welcoming the funding, Schmeling told Radio NZ “this is a miracle for us ... it’s big big news.

“It will make a lot of difference - not just for the national team but for the whole development program, for the kids, their schools (because currently) we don’t have the facilities to host any tournaments.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand is one of 13 FIFA member associations to register their interest in hosting the 2020 Futsal World Cup.

FIFA said it received record interest across five confederations to host the event. As well as New Zealand other nations to put forward bids include Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

The only continent not to have a nation in the running is South America, with Colombia staging this year’s Futsal World Cup in September. The next stage of the bidding process for the 2020 tournament will require formal declarations of interest by 6th May.

The 2020 World Cup will be the ninth edition of the tournament, which has so far been hosted by four of the six confederations, since the first edition was played in the Netherlands in 1989.

Futsal image courtesy of Exhibit Sports.

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