SOLOMON ISLANDS female football team joins five other Pacific Island nations who were confirmed out of the World football ranking.
The world soccer body, FIFA released the latest ranking last Friday identifying Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga as countries not ranked in the current listing.
According to FIFA, the six Pacific female soccer teams are out of the world soccer ranking because of prolonged inactivity.
This means Solomon Islands will need to play more matches and participate in more games both internationally and regionally.
Solomon Islands has been inactive for quite some time with only its latest participation abroad during the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea (PNG) last year.
Prior to that and since the Pacific Games, Solomon Islands have not participated in any regional or international competitions thus were contributing factors to their ousting.
However the good news is women are still being engaged in the organized domestic league.
Last week the Solomon Islands Football Federation announced a training squad for the country’s U16 women’s team for the Oceania U17 women’s champions.
This is a move the country will need to look at using in convincing FIFA to have Solomon Islands back in the World ranking.
Other teams around the world that joined the six Pacific Island nations are Jordan, Haiti, Cuba, Congo, Dominican Republic, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Dominica and Arub.
The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking has a new team at the top for the first time since March 2015, with Germany back at the summit.
The European champions have dethroned ranking stalwarts the USA – who now sit in second – in a table that has been shaped by an eventful three months of friendly matches and invitational tournaments.
By CARLOS ARUAFU
