THE much awaited Pikinini Football Development Program has been set to kick off on the second week to November 2015 in Honiara.
Honiara Football Association (HFA) General Secretary Leonard Paia confirmed this to Star Sports yesterday.
“The HFA Executive in their meeting last week agreed to launch the SWIRE PIKININI Football Development Program on Saturday 14th November at Lawson Tama,’’ Paia said.
“The program will be officially launched by SWIRE Shipping Company Country Manager Rodney Begley,” he added.
Rodney Begley is the Country Manager for SWIRE Shipping local agent, Tradco Shipping Ltd and Guadalcanal Travel Services (GTS) in Honiara.
The program will target children between the ages of 8 to 12.
“The proposal is to set up three Centres of Excellence to cater for the three Honiara constituencies namely East, Central and West Honiara,” Paia said.
The HFA general secretary stressed SIFF Academy will cater for East Honiara, Lawson Tama for Central Honiara, while Rove will serve West Honiara.
“Each of the centres will have a coordinator and 10 coaches each to administer and run the centre for the first 6 weeks of the program.
“Therefore, HFA is looking for 30 youth coaches and three coordinators. All positions will be on voluntarily basis,’’ he said.
Star Sports understands the Pikinini Program has now been confirmed to kick off after Tradco Shipping Company and SWIRE Shipping stepped in and rendered their support towards the program by donating football gears and financial assistance of about $40,000 a year for three years.
Meanwhile, Paia stressed HFA has acknowledged the support rendered by the Shipping companies to help football development in the country.
“We wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the timely support given by SWIRE Shipping Company through its local agent in Honiara, Tradeco Shipping Ltd & GTS.
“HFA believe that this partnership will go a long way in the future to grow youth football development in Solomon Islands and raise the level of competitiveness of our future national teams compatible to international level,’’ he added.
By CROFTON UTUKANA
