General Secretary of the Sanma Provincial Government Joel Path has been announced as vice-chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the tournament, which will be held in Santo from April 17-27.
“This is an important competition for Santo and Vanuatu football and I want to express my gratitude to OFC for selecting our province to host this event,” Path says.
“This is an event we believe will help improve our youth development in football and will provide an excellent opportunity for us to showcase the passion in Santo for football.”
Path believes the skill level among the U-17 players from all the regions due to compete is very high.
“This will be the future of professional football. All the high-level players started in this kind of competition,” he says.
Path is meeting with a delegation of officials from VFF this week to discuss the upcoming event and elect the members of the LOC.
The tournament’s organisation is not the only thing VFF has started focusing on, with the national U-17 team recently entering a three-month training camp ahead of April’s event.
Coach Etienne Mermer says his side has one aim for the event – to play smart and win every game.
“We know that the competition will be tight, but I think we have the support behind us. At the end of the day it all depends on how our boys perform throughout the competition,” Mermer says.
“We have a lot of respect for countries like New Zealand, Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea because they are carrying out the same football development programme as Vanuatu.”
Many of Mermer’s squad were part of the federation’s academy programme last year and will be representing their country for the first time on an international stage at the OFC tournament.
For more on Vanuatu football go to www.vanuafoot.vu

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