Solomon Islands loses U17 WC Spot

The U-17 Squad during the qualifiers.

The Solomon Islands National U-17 team have been disqualified from participating in this year’s FIFA U17 World Cup in Peru for fielding an over-aged player during last year’s qualifiers in Honiara.

The investigation resulted in the OFC Disciplinary Committee yesterday concluding that a “deliberate and serious breach of the OFC Disciplinary Code” had been made after the player in question, Mr Chris Satu, was found to have been born prior to 1 January 2002, on an underdetermined date.

Mr Satu is found to be in breach of Article 73 and Article 59 (1) of the OFC Disciplinary Code and has been suspended for six matches under Article 59.

The Solomon Islands U-16 team will forfeit all the matches in which Mr Satu participated in during the OFC U-16 Championship 2018 – five matches in total – and will receive a fine of NZ$500 under Article 73 of the Disciplinary Code.

SIFF have been found in breach of Article 34 (2) of the OFC U-16 Championship 2018 Regulations.

Part of OFC’s report on Satu’s case.

In response to OFC’s decision, SIFF president Willie Lai denied any involvement by SIFF executive and management in the issue.

He said Chris Satu created the problem himself and SIFF had nothing to do with the details he provided.

“We totally don’t have any association with Chris Satu’s problem, As the president I am very sorry for what had happened because we really worked hard to qualify for the World Cup,” he said.

“We spent a lot of efforts and a lot of time , the players, their families, coaches and staff have worked hard for this.”

Lai said SIFF had launched an internal investigation into the issue, and were looking at appealing the decision.

“We met this morning and came up with two things, we will carryout our own internal investigation , and we will make an appeal to the OFC’s appeal committee on their decision,” he said.

“I think all of us feel sorry about this , but to be honest for those of us who are working behind the scenes we shoul be more sorry about this.”

By: Lowen Sei. 

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