Jubbaland Football Benefit from SFF’s spread the football initiative

Football in the semiautonomous

Somali State of Jubbaland, south end of the country, had a boost of football knowledge after benefitting from coaching, refereeing and football administration courses conducted in the key port city of Kismayo under Somali Football Federation’s [Spread the football] initiative.

The three development courses were hosted by the Jubbaland football association and were held from 31st of March to 4th of April 2016.

The program brought together a total of 50 football volunteers including 20 referees, 17 coaches and 13 football administrators who came from the three regions in the Jubbaland State.

The development initiative which was announced by the Somali Football Federation president, Abdiqani Said Arab, in his post election address on 31st of August 2014 was mainly intended to prepare the country for its first ever regional football leagues which had so far been played in some parts of the country.

“Human resource development is the most important thing for us. The main objective for the organization of the regional development courses is to educate the people who would manage football in all regional states of the federal government to give them the capacity and the knowledge to implement the regional leagues under the auspice of SFF” president Abdiqani Said Arab noted.

The president said this was the second huge development project to be carried out in the country in less than two months adding that such projects will be implemented throughout the country despite the less financial capability the federation is facing with no local sponsorships at all.

“Although we have no local sponsors and our government has not the financial capacity to assist us, we are determined to spreading football knowledge across the country, because our commitment is more than enough” said SFF president Abdiqani Said Arab, who thanked FIFA for being the sole financer of his federation since the country descended into chaos more than 26 years ago.The chairman of the Jubbaland state football association, Ahmed Farah Taqal, thanked the Somali Football Federation authorities for their commitment to promote football throughout the country.

“With the help of Somali Football federation, we intend to continue development courses in the region” he said.

vice president, Ali Abdi Mohamed, who addressed at the closing ceremony of the development courses, said that SFF was giving much priority to increasing the quality and quantity of human resources.

“In February, we did such program in Puntland state and today we are here and tomorrow we will be in other states” said SFF senior vice president Ali Abdi Mohamed adding that his federation was very pleased with the cooperation from the regional state’s ministry for public affairs. Jubbaland state minister for public affairs Moalim Mohamed Ibrahim added that football was playing a big role in the restoration of the country’s lost name and publicity.

“Football is very important for the people of Somalia because it brings about peace and generates public integration and development. The country got destroyed, but now after so many years, we have high hopes that we are almost back” the minister said before inviting Jubaland’s vice president Abdullahi Sheik Ismail to announce the closure of the development program.