Capital Balls FIFA football balls

Fiji club giants Ba secured the Super Six title thanks to a 2-0 win over close rivals Labasa. Goals from Fijian internationals Maciu Dunadamu and Pita Baleitoga were enough to clinch the championship for Fiji’s 2009 O-League representatives. Meanwhile, fellow Fijians Nads have secured the services of three Solomon Islands internationals ahead of the inter-District Cup tournament. Stanley Waita, Godwin Bebeu and George Lui will join the club for its tilt at Fijian football’s ultimate prize.

Defending champions AS Manu Lira are representing French Polynesia at the 2008 Coupe de L’Outre-Mer but lost all three of their matches to Martinique (0-1), Guadeloupe (0-1 > and Oceanian rivals New Caledonia (0-1). New Caledonia - fresh from a second place finish in the 2008 OFC Nations Cup -finished third in Group 1 and will play Mayotte in the match for fifth place.

Papua New Guinea’s 2009 O-League representatives, Hekari Souths United, have signed Solomon Islands internationals Fred Hale and Joachim Waroi ahead of their forthcoming national league campaign. Hekari have been drawn in O-League Group B alongside Koloale and Ba. Koloale defeated Australian club Brisbane Wolves twice during a three-match tour of the Solomon Islands earlier this month.
New Zealand club Auckland City have pulled off a major transfer coup in signing former Barcelona defender Xavi Roca. The 34-year-old will join former New Zealand and Roda JC midfielder, Ivan Vicelich, at Kiwitea Street this season as coach Colin Tuaa seeks to win his first New Zealand Football Championship (NZFC) title.

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, President of the Chilean football association and FIFA’s Goal Programme representative in South America, carried out an inspection visit to the site on which the Ecuadorian national team headquarters are to be built in Quito, Ecuador. Located in the Monte Olivo district, the long-awaited headquarters will house the training centre for the Ecuadorian national teams. Work has begun on filling and levelling the site. Inaugurated in 2004, the Ecuadorian House of Football (the association’s headquarters) is a modern building located in Guayaquil. Both construction projects were set in motion by the President of the Ecuadorian football association, Luis Chiriboga, who has been in office since 1998.

In Argentina, the Apertura Interior (Reaching out to the Provinces) project, launched by the Argentinian football association (AFA), has started to yield results sooner than expected. Two players from the association’s centres of excellence have been selected for the U-15 national team ahead of the next South American championship for that age category. Marcos de Martin, a forward from the city of Parana, Entre Rios, and Denis Oscar Gomez, a midfielder born in Resistencia, Chaco, have been called up by coach Hector Enrique. Under this project, centres for developing, training and spotting new talent are being established in various parts of the country. In view of Argentina’s vast size, the objective of the project is for the AFA’s technical teams to focus not only on Buenos Aires, but to travel to the provinces, where coordinators have been designated to select skilled young players and train them in their local areas. As well as Entre Rios and Chaco, the Apertura Interior initiative is being run in the provinces of Salta, Mendoza, Cordoba and Chubut, and there are plans to extend the project further.

Following Jorge Luis Pinto’s dismissal as coach of the Colombian national team, Eduardo Lara has been appointed as caretaker coach for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ qualifiers against Paraguay and Brazil Lara has been on the staff of the Colombian football association for a number of years and is in charge of the national youth teams.

Seven CONCACAF referees took part in the FIFA Elite Referee Seminar II at the Home of FIFA in Zurich on 23-26 September. Joel Aguilar (El Salvador), Benito Armando Archundia (Mexico), Carlos Batres (Guatemala), Jair Marrufo (USA), Roberto Moreno (Panama), Marco Rodriguez (Mexico) and Enrico Wijngaarde(Suriname) joined 47 other referees at the seminar, the purpose of which was to evaluate them for possible selection for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.

Ronald Jones was re-elected as President of the Barbados Football Association during the annual general meeting at the Barbados Workers Union Headquarters in St Michael’s on 28 September. Jones defeated Sherlock Yarde 81 -60 for a term that will expire in 2012. Also at the annual general meeting, Yarde was elected Senior Vice-President, while Basil Gittens was chosen as Junior Vice-President and Curtis Hunte was elected treasurer.

The women’s team of Anguilla posted a win and a draw against hosts the US Virgin Islands in a two-game friendly
series in St Croix in late August. Jaynelie Lake scored twice for Anguilla, while Zauditu Amlak Kaza and Sydnei Rogers answered for the US Virgin Islands in the 2-2 draw in the first encounter at the St Croix Educational Complex Ground on 29 August. Two days later, Shanelle Browne scored the only goal of the match for Anguilla in their 1-0 win at St Croix’s Schjang Grounds. The victory was the Soccer Dolphins’ first since they defeated Antigua and Barbuda 1 -0 in a friendly in Sf John’s on 29 August 2004.