By Fiji FA Technical Director
Timo Jankowski
New Implementations and the first-ever Fiji Football Development Curriculum “Totolo Futupolo”
Thanks to many open-minded and football enthusiastic people in Fiji I could manage to get a very good overview of the football landscape here in Fiji in the last few months. Everyone I met is very supportive and critical in a positive way which we need to be to reach our potential in a more efficient way.
Out of this analysis, we are lucky to implement already some very important steps for the Future of Fiji Football.
Last three weeks I was very busy going around Fiji to get an overview of our young talents, especially with the focus on our U16 National team that will play the World Cup Qualifier here in Fiji in September. At some places, more than 100 players showed up and I could see a lot of talent and passion. We will try our very best to build up the right setting and opportunities that is talent can blossom.
For the Women´s National team we could win with Lisa Cole, a very experienced and highly qualified coach from the USA. The Fiji FA also showed with this step a modern approach for gender equality by giving this important job to a female coach. I am sure Lisa will do her absolute best to progress our Women´s National team as far as possible in the OFC World Cup Qualifier and also to help to develop Women´s Football in Fiji in general. It looks very promising that we will have in April two games against the Philippines who have already qualified for the World Cup. That important international game time is very important for our talented Squad. Also, the Final of the Women´s IDC between Ba and Labasa was shown for the first time live on Fiji TV with a strong Labasa Squad led by the Player of the tournament Cema Nasau.
The Futsal IDC was just great to watch with highly competitive matches and a lot of talented players. The FBC Live Stream proved the high interest for Futsal in Fiji and I am sure we have a bright future in this area with a new build strategy to fulfill the potential we have with Futsal.
To give the Beach soccer Community a boost we could manage to get the World-leading expert in this area for the first FIFA Beach Soccer Course ever into Fiji. Angelo Schirinzi the National Coach of the Swiss Beach Soccer Team is the main factor that Tahiti shows outstanding results in Beach soccer in the last few years and we hope he will also inspire us here in Fiji with the FIFA course at the end of April.
A critical point in player development is the entry from U19 to Men´s Football that is why we implemented the rule that in the Premier and Senior League this season each team has to have at least two U19 players in their squad, to give our young players the platform to develop. That is beside the fact, that we increased the competition from 8 to 10 teams to get more games another important step in the right direction of football and player development. Also that the Fiji FA could secure a TV Deal with FBC to show games of the Fiji Premier League live is a big step into the professionalism of Football in Fiji.
To grow and professionalize our Technical Team the Fiji FA helped us to get three new top qualified full-time Technical Staff in our Department, one new Expert each for the National Academies in Ba, Labasa and Suva. Two of them are currently doing their A-Licence with the New Zealand FA as well as our Head of Coach Education Yogendra Dutt, who planned a lot of Coaching Courses for 2022, where we would like to see more former players so we can benefit from their experience. The aim for this year is also to run a special C-Licence Course for our Women and Men National players to start them to prepare for a coaching pathway after their career.
This new Technical Staff will also help us to get our National Academy Program started. Through a clear strategic plan, we could convince OFC to support us with special available funding to set up an Elite Program in our three National Academies where we want to train our most talented players from a young age in an elite way with 3-5 training a week all year round in a professional environment. At the moment we have trials every weekday and want to create out of this the best possible base by April for the most talented players.
From there we want to progress in the future step by step to all clubs to run their own Academy Programs because nothing is more important than investing in the future. Part of this Program is the so-called “Fun Center” for U6- U11 and a “Skill Center” for U12-U15. We are also working on plans for how we can deliver this program into many towns and districts besides our three National Academies. Please give us some time for this big project we are working hard daily to reach more and more players but if we would go too fast the quality we need would just not be there.
A top critical success factor to develop our next generation will be to have an aligned Football Development Curriculum, that is why we put a lot of work in the last few months into this very important part of our future strategy for football development and we are proud to have reached the end line in the development of our first-ever Fiji Football Development Curriculum.
Football is life and passion and to develop football in Fiji further with all of you, we need a strong football foundation that the next generation of talented football players in Fiji can rely on.
To build such a strong fundament we need to think in processes with a long-term sustainable strategy. There are no shortcuts in football development it is about being open-minded to learn new things, analyze the best practices in the football world, building good processes adapted to our specific football environment here in Fiji, having good people in the project with a passion for the game and put in the work and of course to have patience.
Football Development will never end, and to develop a football player to the top it is proven, that we have to start before the so-called Golden Age, which means it will take 8-10 years to see the real outcome. Our job in the Technical Department is to develop the top level but also the base at the same time. We will try to create Win-Win Situations as we strongly believe with the focus on player development we will all win in Fiji Football.
To develop better players we need the best possible coaches and the best possible training concept. The definition of training is, that it is a planned process to get better. So by definition, we need to have a planned starting point for football development which was the aim of developing the first Fiji Football Development Curriculum.
This Curriculum is not based on somebody`s opinion it is rather based on objective facts, science and best practices adapted to the natural strength of Fijian talent and it is backed up by the “FIFA Country Report”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xudQIjOQEgA
If we analyze top-level football that becomes faster and faster & where the transition phases become more and more decisive, it becomes clear that we have to play a fast directional game on the ground with few touches with technically strong players that can think and sprint fast.
As Fiji has a young dynamic and talented society, we want to develop players that can play a fast dynamic football our people love to see – “Totolo Futupolo”.Sport in general and football in specific is a very important Social Development tool, so we want not just to develop better players but also want to help through the power of football to develop better people with strong values.
With this Football Development Curriculum, we want to create opportunities for the next generation, that a lot of young girls and boys fall in love with the beautiful game and develop out of these future elite players for our Women’s and Men’s National teams we can be proud of. This Football Development will get officially launched by mid of April in the BA Academy where we will invite besides the officials and coaches all interested people in football development to share this detailed 200 page Curriculum “Totolo Futupolo” for the first time with important information about Playing Principles, Key Performance Indicators in the modern game, ideas about common football culture and specific best practice exercises besides other important topics to develop football in Fiji.
Besides the Foreword from our President Mr. Patel and our CEO, Mr. Yusuf who have been big supporters from the beginning of this project also our best player ever Roy Krishna and his wife Naziah showed their support for the setup of our National Football Identity “Totolo Futupolo” and contributed important guidance why this step is so important.
We would love to see you all in April when we will present in more detail what “Tutolo Futupolo” is about. Also at this event, we want to use a practical session as we have to bring this Curriculum alive on the pitch where the real magic in player and football development happens.
Yours in Football,
Timo
