Football Federation Samoa (“FFS”) has started its Fun Football Series Program on Saturday mornings around Uplou and Savaii following the easement of State of Emergency (“SOE”) conditions set by the Government.
The Fun Football is a free program targeting the development of football skills for young players from the age group of 5-15 years old and is now in its third week.
According to FFS CEO, “the re-commencement of the Fun Football program is in line with our long-term objective which is build a strong pool of players from the grassroots level and eventually be able to feed the older age group teams as well as our national team.”
The Fun Football program this year will also have special emphasis on the development of girl’s skills which is also in line with the FFS goal to development of Women’s Football in Samoa.
As a specialist program, the objective of the Women’s Football Program in Samoa is to encourage more girls/women to play football and it is believed that development of skills from a young age will go a long way to ensure girls/women have a bright and prospective future in Women’s Football.
Women’s Football has long been developed and established in other soccer jurisdictions and Samoa is taking steps to ensure our local girls and young women pursue this promising pathway. Thus, Fun Football program for both girls and boys are run on Saturdays and during the week concurrently to encourage girls and women participation in soccer.
A milestone in the history of Samoan Football was recognized last year when Samoa’s Women’s team secured the Silver Medal in the XVI Pacific Games here in Apia and the appointment of Samoa’s only Female FIFA Assistant Referee Maria Salamasina to officiate in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
In this regard, FFS hopes to continue the development and increase participation of girls in soccer which will help with the development of the Samoa Women’s Football initiative in Samoa as well as being in line with Samoa’s Development Goals of encouraging girls/women participation in sports.
The Fun Football Program is open to girls 5-15+ years and is currently conducted every Saturdays and week days in Upolu and Savaii. The locations in Upolu are Samoa College Grounds, JS Blatter Complex Tuanaimato, Saoluafata field; Moata’a, Sauvao Sofara Residence fields Faleasi’u, FFS Regional Centre, Iva Fa’asaleleaga, Salelologa and Satupa’itea village fields.
