OUR young futsal stars have made us proud again.
The U12 side won the Australian Futsal Championship last week, while the U14 settled for third position in their category.
They arrived back in Honiara on Tuesday to a hero’s welcome at Henderson Airport and later had the privileged of having an audience with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
Mr Sogavare expressed how proud he was of the achievement the boys made.
Furthermore, he announced the government would pay $1,500 to each of the players.
Mr Sogavae must be commended for recognising the young stars and rewarding them for their great efforts.
This kind of payment definitely goes a long way in keeping the boys in the sport of futsal and motivating them to go higher.
Rewarding those who did the country proud is the most sensible thing to do. Mr Sogavare did just that.
But the financial support should not stop there.
These young futsal stars are the future of the sport in the country. Soon they’ll become our “Kurukurus”.
Kurukura, our national futsal side, are currently the champions of Oceania.
They’ve also took our country to the world stage, playing in the Futsal World Cup on two previous occasions.
Although they are yet to win the World Cup, being up there on the world stage is an achievement itself.
So futsal is a sport that has brought much pride to the nation.
Sadly however, our futsal players – both at the senior and junior levels – whose skills in the game have always marvelled spectators both at home and abroad, do not have a proper place to train.
The Multi-purpose hall in Honiara, where they normally do their training, is not a futsal court.
Yet, this is where the boys did most of their training.
The time is therefore right for the government to invest in this sport through the construction of a futsal stadium.
There have been talks on this in the past, but that’s it – mere talks.
Constructing a futsal stadium would be the best reward the government could give to the nation’s growing and ambitious futsal talents.
Can the government liaise with Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) to seriously look into this?
