About a hundred invited guests including officials from the Solomon Islands government, SIFF, the participating clubs and members of the media attended the event, which was held at the SIFF academy football pitch.
The evening started with speeches from SIFF President Martin Alufurai, Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Manasseh Maelanga and Chairman of the Our Telekom Board of Governors John Beverly.
The official declaration to open the Telekom S-League was made by Hon. Maelanga and his statement was followed by cheers and claps from the invited guests.
The highlight of the evening was the unveiling of the Telekom S-League logo by the evening’s three speakers, who were joined by Oceania’s FIFA development officer Glenn Turner.
The public launching was held at Lawson Tama Stadium on Saturday and included a friendly match between a combined Bilikiki and Kurukuru – the national beach soccer and futsal teams – line-up against the Solomon Islands national U-20 training squad. This provided a hint of what is to come in the S-League as most of the players who took the field have been signed up by the eight franchise clubs.
Forty-four lucky spectators walked away with promotional Telekom S-League merchandise, which was thrown into the crowd prior to the start of the match by players from both teams to promote the competition.
The match was followed by live performances from a number of local bands, who continued entertaining the crowd until late in the evening.
The first matches of the Telekom S-League will kick off this weekend, starting with the opener between Malaita Kingz and JP Su’uria on Saturday at 1pm.
For more on Solomon Islands football go to www.siff.com.sb