'You make the nation proud': Solomon Islands women's team celebrated after OFC triumph
Photo:
Kirk Corrie / Phototek.nz
Solomon Islands women's soccer team has been praised by both the country's prime minister and opposition leader following their Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) 2025 Women's Nations Cup title win in Suva over the weekend.
SIBC
reported that with thousands of fans welcoming the team home on Sunday, both Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele and opposition leader Matthew Wale congratulated the team's success.
Solomon Islands, under the mentorship of interim head coach Moses Toata,
defeated
Papua New Guinea 3-2 in the final of the OFC Women's Nations Cup for the first time ever.
The Solomon Islands Football Federation's national women's team in Honiara on Monday, 21 July. Thousands of supporters greeted captain Ileen Pegi, coach Moses Toata and the players to show their appreciation for winning the OFC Women's Nations Cup title in Fiji.
Photo:
Oceania Football Confederation
Manele said this achievement is a proud moment for the country and "shows the resilience, talent, and determination of Solomon Islands women in sport".
"Congratulations to our ladies' soccer team. You make the nation proud by winning the OFC Championship Cup - first time to reach the final and win the trophy," Manele said in a statement.
"This victory has brought joy to our people and lifted the nation's spirit. It reflects our strength and the power of teamwork and perseverance.
"This is a moment of pride for all Solomon Islanders. Thank you, girls, for showing what is possible."
Manele also acknowledged the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF), the coaching staff, and team management for their role in supporting the team throughout the tournament.
Wale said the team's historic triumph was "a moment of immense national pride and a testament to the talent, discipline, and resilience of Solomon Islands women in sport".
"I join today with all Solomon Islanders across the nation to congratulate the Women's National Team on this historic achievement. You have brought tremendous pride and joy to all our islands," Wale said.
"To the full squad, from the substitutes to the starting eleven, the captain Ileen Pegi, you have all done exceptionally well!.
"Congratulations also to Moses Toata and the entire coaching and management team. Your belief and guidance were instrumental in taking our women all the way to this historic moment."
Wale said the victory would continue to inspire Solomon Islands girls to pursue football and other sports.
"This is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when we invest in our women and girls," he said.
"Our female athletes have shown that they can compete and succeed on the regional stage. They deserve our full recognition and unwavering support."
Solomon Islands are OFC Women's Nations Cup champions, and it's Moses Toato led the Solomon Islands women's team to their first-ever OFC Women's Nations Cup title.
Photo:
Oceania Football Confederation
Former Solomon Islands men's team captain Batram Suri said he was proud of what the team has achieved.
Suri was the team coach earlier this year but was suspended by Solomon Islands Football Association (SIFA).
"Yes, I am the happiest man," Suri said on Monday.
"Eventhough I am on suspension, my heart is with the team and I am very glad to see them win the grand final."
Suri had worked with current coach Toata, who is also the technical director with SIFA.
Meanwhile, the Fiji Football Association (FFA) will review the contract of their national women's team coach Angeline Chua.
FFA chief executive Mohammed Yusuf confirmed with RNZ Pacific that a review is underway.
"The board and council members expressed disappointment at our performance and all the team management staff have until Friday to complete full report," Yusuf said.
"This will be analysed and then a decision will be made."
If the report is unfavourable Chua will be released from her contract.
Fiji failed to make the final, losing to PNG in the semi-final then lost to Samoa for third spot, a major upset in the history of women's competition.
The Fijians had a number of overseas-based players playing for them.
In another development, the Fiji FA has parted ways with men's team head coach Rob Sherman.
Yusuf said Sherman's contract included being relieved of his contract if the team failed to qualify for the final two at the OFC World Cup qualifiers earlier this year.
"This was by mutual agreement and as such he actually finished on July 20," Yusuf said
"This was part of his contract that should we fail to reach the final two at the OFC World Cup playoff then we could end his contract."
Yusuf said they will advertise the position this week and hope to appoint a new coach by August.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Trangender inclusive sports guidelines had positive impact for community
Rugby NZ says the guidelines had been valuable to the organisation. Photo: ©creativenature / 123RF The removal of guidelines for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport will further alienate people from participating, a member of a health advocacy group says. Rugby NZ says it's been using the advice and found it very helpful and valuable. The government has ordered Sport New Zealand to scrap its work on guidelines for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport. It has also removed the document from its website. First published in 2022, the guidelines do not dictate what individual organisations can decide about participation but they have been available on Sport NZ's website, providing advice based on health research and testimony from those with lived experience. Last year then-minister for sport Chris Bishop asked Sport NZ to review the guidelines for "safety and fairness" and update the principles. The current Minister for Sport and Recreation Mark Mitchell said the government has decided to leave decision making to individual sporting codes and there was nothing wrong with the content in the guidelines. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was about consistency and safety. Member of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa, student nurse and football player, Avery Zavoda, told Checkpoint she was incredibly disappointed to hear the guidelines were being scrapped altogether. "I feel like the previous advice from Sport NZ was robust and it helped smaller sport clubs and organisations with their inclusion policies as well as also providing guidelines around bullying, discrimination and harassment. I was really sad to see that all of those had been removed now," Zavoda said. Sports Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The "overarching principle" of the document was inclusion. "Every New Zealander has the right to participate in sport and to be treated with respect, empathy and positive regard. Transgender people can take part in sports in the gender they identify with," the document said. The guiding principles were based around: The principles were not mandatory and were not rules or criteria, as Sport NZ noted it would not be possible to provide a one-size-fits-all approach across every code. Despite not being mandatory, Zavoda said the guidelines were beneficial to small clubs who may not have the resources to do their own research into best practice guidelines. "It's taking away a tool that community sport organisations can use to know that they are doing the right thing by their community." Zavoda said she struggled to find a social football team and organisation running the tournaments that would be respectful. "I know many other people have struggled as well. Even though there... was guidance from Sport NZ about our inclusion. "I certainly feel that those guidelines had an impact, I felt like there was more that could be done, taking steps forward rather than now taking steps back and I know that this decision will lead to the feelings of many trans and non-binary people to further feel alienated from being able to play sport - a critical key in health." National's coalition with New Zealand First contains a commitment to "ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender". Asked about NZ First saying scrapping the guidelines aligns with the party standing up for "safety and fairness" in sport Zavoda said: "This is not elite sport, it's not about an advantage, you're playing casual community sport, like the kind that you or I should be able to go to, and in that community sport you have a diverse range of physiques, builds and that's across both trans and cisgender people." RNZ also spoke to Lenny, who said the point of community sport is to have fun and the removal of the guidelines just excludes people. "I know it's a divisive thing, transgender people in sport, but all we want to do is be the people that we want to be and be allowed to do that." Lenny said the experience of playing sport as a child was unpleasant. "Going on a sports field, feeling completely overwhelmed and isolated around all these screaming boys just being boys and...I would just stand around on the field not knowing what to do and trying to avoid everybody, so it's not a fun experience." Waikato University's Holly Thorpe, who helped draft the guidelines, said they were written because sports clubs wanted some help. "Sport NZ and our community sports clubs and organisations all want inclusion, they want everybody in New Zealand society to have access to supportive, inclusive, safe environments to participate. "This decision today is not a step towards that." Labour's rainbow issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert has labelled the decision a step backwards and said "this government keeps on kicking people down", and the Human Rights Commission has called this a "sad day". Green Party spokesperson for Takatāpui and Rainbow communities Benjamin Doyle said the directive showed the coalition had once again failed rainbow communities. NZ Rugby says it had been using the advice and found it very helpful and valuable. NZ Rugby's head of participation for community rugby, Mike Hester, told Checkpoint moving forward, the organisation will be guided by values and also by the voices of its participants. "They provided quite a lot of useful advice around how to understand the issue, how to... improve the awareness of some of the challenges that go in the space, so some of that advice was really useful and I think others in the sector have found it useful to help guide their thinking in this space." The guidelines had confirmed a lot of the issues NZ Rugby needed to think about as it moved forward with a community position. Asked if it was important people could play on a team that aligns with their gender, Hester said a key part of community sport was being able to access it and participate in a way that was important to each individual. "We would always feel inclusion is a really important value in rugby, it's a game for all shapes and sizes, everybody's welcome" he said. Ensuring safe participation was also something Rugby NZ would need to think about moving forward, he said. Hester was asked if Sports NZ saw allowing people to play with a team that aligns with their gender as inclusion over fairness, as suggested by NZ First leader Winston Peters. "When we spoke to our communities about this matter over the last couple of years, the themes that came through, particularly from participants in the women's category... what was really prominent was inclusion and safety," Hester said. "Fairness was less prominent for them because in the community space it's actually about other motivations to participate."
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Warriors coach calling for re-think
The Warriors have faced a stern test in their return to the NRLW and their coach is calling for the competition to re-think how travel for the women is managed. The Warriors' only win in the first three rounds of the competition came in front of their home fans in Penrose, and their latest extensive travel day to Newcastle is something coach Ron Griffiths said he doesn't want to replicate. Sports reporter Felicity Reid spoke to Melissa Chan-Green. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Govt orders Sport NZ to scrap transgender inclusion guidelines
money sport 31 minutes ago NZ First's spoken about defunding sporting bodies that support trans inclusion - but its 2023 manifesto also spoke about making people healthier by promoting exercise and sport programmes including 'assisting people into sport that can't be involved' - surely those two sentiments juxtapose each other.
