Twenty participants are attending the week long course organised by FIFA in conjunction with Fiji FA and OFC and being held at the Fiji Football Regional Headquarters in Suva, with practical sessions at Vodafone Arena.
The course aims at educating and developing future futsal coaches in the nation by providing the latest information on the Laws of the Game, development techniques and tactics.
“I strongly believe that this coaching course will be able to develop more futsal coaches in Fiji and these coaches are going to be responsible for training and producing more men’s and women’s futsal players in the country in the near future,” said Fiji FA chief executive officer Bob Kumar at the opening ceremony.
“We are trying to revive and upgrade futsal in the country and to develop the game from the grassroots level by entering in the school systems,” Kumar explained.
He encouraged the participants to make use of this week long course and do their best to gain something from it.
“We would like to participate in the next OFC Futsal Championship and with your support, following this course you can return to your communities and help develop this game, which in turn will help to create more futsal players.” Kumar said.
“We would like to thank FIFA and the OFC for their approval and support for this course and wish to see more courses like this one introduced in Fiji to raise the standard of futsal.”
OFC Futsal and Beach Soccer Development Officer Paul Toohey, who is conducting the course, said he is very happy to see a mix of participants with former futsal players, coaches and mostly the Fiji FA Development Officers participating.
“I believe that Fiji has a lot of potential coaches and with educational courses organised it will definitely improve the coaches’ competency and develop more quality futsal players in the future.
“We are having the introductory level now, but our big focus is on long-term development of the game and on how we can create activities and more futsal in Fiji.
“It’s very important that following the course all the participants go back to their districts and create activities especially at grassroots level.
“Futsal has an important role in developing football players because of the particular qualities, speed and skills.
“The right planning and and the proper coaching one day might take Fiji to the FIFA Futsal World Cup as I have seen the caliber in Fijian players, “added Toohey.
Kini Ravai, one of four female participants, hopes to get good coaching guides as she woud like to develop players through futsal and intends to go back to her district to share what she has learnt.
“We have a lot of potential in my district, Ba, and it would be great to share what I have learnt here with some of the players I have worked with there,” she says.
Ba football rep and national futsal rep Aisea Codro hopes to get lots of experience from the course and will help in developing futsal in the grassroots level in his district.
Fiji Football Development officer west Epeli Codro said he has no coaching experience but is eager to get something out of this course and like his fellow participants is keen to share that with others who haven’t been able to attend this course.
Former National Futsal coach Intiaz Khan says he is eager to learn more from this course and help in developing more players.
“There has been not much done in futsal for the past few years but I am proud that Fiji FA will be reviving the futsal curriculum again and developing more coaches through this course in order to do that.”
Khan says he wants to share the knowledge to others and deliver it to any interested players, while he also hopes that from the learning being down this week, development of the game will begin from primary and secondary schools level.
Fiji FA Futsal development officer and former national rep Ronald Ram says he hopes to learn more and develop the players and thanked Fiji FA for having faith in him.
The FIFA Futsal Coaching Course is being held from 20-24 April in Fiji.
For more on Fiji football visit fijifootball.com.fj.

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