Background
Fédération Tahitienne de Football organises an annual festival of football for participants from across all its territories. This ‘Island Festival’ of football includes the codes of football, futsal and beach soccer. Since its inception in 2008, the festival has grown to become the most popular football event of the territory and similarly, the most representative of its archipelagos including more than 2000 participants, 134 teams, 57 percent of which are represented by island players arising from its archipelagos outside the main island of Tahiti. This fact presents the logistical and financial challenges of assembling participants emanating from its vast territory.
French Polynesia has an approximate total land mass of 4000 square kilometres spread across 118 islands and atolls that encompass a geographical spread of 2000km. This translates to massive internal costs for transportation of participants into the capital, Papeete where the festival is organised annually.
Objectives of project
The objectives of this event are:
- Develop and promote football in all its forms in Tahiti
- Ensure medical control of the participants are free of charge
- Football participates in the local economy
- Promotion of good social practices based on conditions outlined in internal regulations
What did FIFA Forward support?
The FIFA Contribution of US$400,024 across 2016 and 2017 were expensed accordingly as follows:
Accommodation (24%), Catering (24%), Flights (31%), Equipment (21%).
Impact of FIFA Forward
As alluded to earlier, the single most significant cost item are the flights for participants of the festival. This represents over 57 percent of all participants, which is 31 percent of the entire FIFA contribution without which, it would be difficult to engage such a large number of participants.
This project contributes to fulfilling the objectives set out in FTF’s CAO to the extent where the FTF shares the same vision as FIFA, for the game, for the islands.