Fiji’s top youth footballers will now have more opportunities to compete regularly with the 2023 McDonald’s Talent Development League launch in Suva today.
The initiative is part of the Fiji Football Association’s (Fiji FA) five-year strategic plan focusing on youth development which was piloted last year and is part of a bid to raise footballing standards in the country.
Fiji was one of only eight countries chosen by the FIFA Talent Development Scheme to pilot the project due to its sound development strategy and plans for youth development.
The league will run for 20 weeks and will feature the nation’s top youth teams across four age groups from Under 9 through to Under 15.
Fiji FA Technical Director Timo Jankowski, who has been at the helm of this project, said the league is a great project for Fiji FA as it will focus on talent identification and development.
As a result, it will establish the base to nurture and build a stronger squad for the national team in the coming years.
“The vision of the Fiji FA technical department is to create opportunities and a pathway for the amazing natural movement of talent in Fiji. We hope that players fall in love with the game and express their talent through football,” Jankowski said.
“Our mission is to build an evidence-based football development programme for Fiji.
For the first time, Fiji FA has a complete Player Development Pyramid from U9 up to U19 and senior football.”
The league will see about 2500 new registered young footballers who would be part of this league with 160 teams from 11 districts participating from around the country.
“In the World Cup 2018, all players from the four semi-finalists France, Croatia, Belgium, and England started to play for a professional academy by the age of 9 and their football journey began in a local club with some of them starting at an even younger age which proves the importance of having a top class football program in place during the so-called Golden Age as the statistic clearly shows that without an early start in Football, a footballer can’t reach the highest level,” Jankowski said.
“The slogan ‘Every Talent deserves a chance!’ is something we live by because you never know who could be the next rising star for Fiji. These players will already kick off their career development and grow from there.”
The league includes both boys and girls and will include the U9, U11, U13, and U15 categories. Four teams are participating from the four national divisions (including the Southern, Western, Northern, and Central Divisions) under each aged category with most categories requiring a minimum of four female players apart from the U9s which has a minimum of two, and the U15 category having the option to field both a boys and a girls team.
“Historically successful women’s footballing nations have had national team players play for at least 15 years alongside boys who are also successful in the sport so the McDonalds Youth League will be played in a mixed format from U9 to U15,” said Jankowski.
There would be over 500 new female players participating which is a positive boost to women’s football which has also seen a rise in recent years. The League also aims to develop the footballers’ abilities to play a fast, modern structured game with many individual qualities.
“The game formats of the McDonald’s League like 5 v 5 in U9 or 8 v 8 in U11 and U13 and specific rules have been adopted to international Best Practice References that will lead to ultimate enjoyment and development.”
“All teams, coaches, and players will work in alignment with the Fiji FA Football Development Curriculum ‘Totolo Futupolo’ with the long-term goal of bringing football development in
Fiji to new heights.”
“The McDonald’s Skill Challenges will be introduced with different technical competitions that will be measured countrywide and help us look for the best technical players and inspire all participants to work on their technical ability as you must ‘Master the Ball to Master the Game’ in football”, he added.
Arsene Wenger, the current head of global football development for FIFA and a former coach at Arsenal, believes that small-sided games and increased football activity are important for the development of a very powerful technique.
According to Wenger, fundamental technical skills must be acquired by a player’s teenage years. If not, the likelihood of the athlete progressing into elite sport is unlikely.
Wenger said, “You build a player like you build a house. First comes the basement, the base of the player is the technique. You get that between seven and fourteen years of age. If you have no technical skill at fourteen, you can forget it, you can never be a football player.”
Jankowski believes that “with this league, the base has been built and it is now on every player, coach, parent, and person involved in football development in Fiji to make the best out of this amazing opportunity!”
Fiji FA has also invested in ten regional coordinators who will help roll out the league nationwide, focusing on training programmes and talent identification.
“In the future, Fiji Football will have a much bigger pool of talents to draw from as these talents will already be identified at a much earlier stage which will increase the long-term performance of the Youth and National teams”.
The McDonald’s Talent Development League is part of Fiji FA’s Youth Development plan which aims to strengthen grassroots football and promote its football philosophy of fast football or Totolo Futupolo.
The programs kick off at 9am with competitions and the official launch will start at 10am. Fijian wonder boy Roy Krishna will be the special guest.
