Banks and Torres Islands are some scattered small islands forming Torba Province in the northern part of Vanuatu where its geographical location make access to services very difficult.
Known as the forgotten province, they surprisingly played an outstanding football in the Youth League Championship last week at the soccer city stadium in Luganville.
They arrive late for the tournament after Cyclone Rita hampered their travelling arrangements but despite the disaster, they proved they are worth all costs incurred in the tournament.
About ten chartered flights were organised to move the youths from Torba province to Luganville for the tournament.
The first first match with Luganville, Torba Men’s U17 drew 3-3 with the host and was much talk about team of the tournament.
In day 2 they beat Penama 3-1 and Simon Richard spoke highly of their game.
“I like the way Torba played, they try to do the right thing”, he said.
“Torba haven’t seen our training program but the game today is the best game I’ve seen in the Northern Region youth tournament”
“I like the way Torba were using width, the team shape was good, team structure was good and individually they’ve got some very good players there”.
Rexley Butakol was awarded with the 2019 National Youth League Best Player trophy and the Best Goalkeeper of the tournament award goes to Anelka Avri.
In the Men U15 game, Sanma were too strong for Torba but Simon said all the eight Member Associations have very good potential players.
“Now that I’ve seen the eight provinces played, supposedly the best team in each province, I’ve ended up saying I would really enjoy coaching anyone of those team for a year and come back and play that tournament”, he admitted.
Simon Richard is the OFC Adviser to VFF and in this tournament he is scouting players with local coaches for the next Vanuatu national team.
Recently Torba football was featured on the Television Blong Vanuatu (TBV) and sets the example of FIFA efforts to ensure football is accessible to everyone.
President of Torba Football Association (TOFA) Shedrack Obed ensures the FIFA Forward 2.0 funds are put to use and the newly introduced FIFA Club Licensing requirements are followed to guide the association, clubs and structure of their competition.
“As soon as I was elected as the Torba football president in 2019, I started to focus on the youth development programmes and I am proud to say all the clubs in Gaua have their youth teams and competitions have run successfully this year”.
There are five area leagues currently active in Torba mostly in the Banks group of Mota Lava Island with one active league, Vanua Lava has one and Gaua running three active football leagues.
“In 2020 we will set up other leagues for the Torres region”, he said.
“It is not easy because the sea separates the Islands and is a big challenge for us to move the players around and having the competitions”.
“For our National Super League (NSL), the three islands in the Banks with the active leagues had to come up with their champions to minimize costs”, he said.
The 2018/19 NSL champions were Waterfall FC from East Gaua League and runner-up were Nere and Magde FC from Mota Lava league and Kings FC from East Gaua sits at the bottom of the table.
Ask about the success of team Torba in the Youth League Championship, Obed says the strength comes from having an active youth league and proper training.
“We were fortunate to have a coaching course conducted by VFF Technical Director Peter Takaro earlier this year involving thirty coaches and representing seventeen football clubs in three area leagues”, he said.
“We also had a referee course involving twenty-six participants from the five area leagues in Torba”.
“Also the courses had pave way for the coaches and clubs have access to quality balls, portable goals, other materials for training such as cones, markers, whistle and stop watches, keeper gloves, pips and water bottles”, he said.
Shedrack Obed was recently elected Second Vice-President of VFF at the 29th Football Congress at Hog Harbour last week.
Torba Delegates at 29th VFF Congress
Torba Competition & Results for 2019
Cover photo by Vanuatu Tourism Office
