FOOTBALL FEDERATION Talking Football AMERICAN SAMOA Talking Football May 2008

Welcome to our FEDERATION LAUNCH NEW LOGO newsletter

Its bright, its dynamic and symbolic of a bright new future for foot- Inside this issue. ball in American Samoa and has already won unanimous approval Federation Launch 1 from football clubs across the territory. New Logo Futsal Kicks Off 1

When the wrapping paper was lifted off Foot- Tactical Formation: 2 ball Federation American Samoa (FFAS) at its The 4-5-1 inaugural congress in Pago Pago last year the only item missing was a new logo for the Education Courses 2 fledgling federation. Futsal Kids 2 FFAS General Congress 3 That's all changed as FFAS released its new Football For Health 4 logo publicly last month at its Annual General Meeting (AGM). Futsal Kids 5 The Man in Black 5 Football coordinator David Brand said the A Life Without Limits 6&7 new design captured the spirit and hope of brighter things to come for football in American Samoa. Web site of the month 8 Football Equipment Guide 8 "Its very colourful and features many of the cultural symbols unique to Support Our Sponsors 8 American Samoa - you have the football surrounded by the kava bowl with a slim-line new design - I think its a good design," Brand said. Motivational Quotes FFAS spokesman Tavita Taumua said the design was the brainchild of Veni So- toaga an artist at the Department of Education. If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y "There was a need to distinguish football from American Football or Gridiron plus z. and this is why we have a football on the logo. The kava bowl and sticks are Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your symbolic of an orator, a chief, who uses these items to symbolise when it is his mouth shut. turn to speak. You can also see Samoan tattoos behind the football. Sopoaga Albert Einstein was the ideal candidate to design the new FFAS logo because of his involve- ment with the local Fagasa Football club,” Taumua said. Courtesy FFAS Media Men are born to succeed, not fail. Futsal Kicks Off Henry David Thoreau

The 2008 senior futsal league kicks of on Saturday 17th Many at Pago Park. Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal. With 10 men’s and 7 women’s teams an exciting competi- Mike Ditka tion is in store over the coming weeks. The futsal is a pre- season competition for the Senior National League which will commence in August. Page Two Talking Football

TACTICAL SYSTEMS The Formation 4-3-3 This formation is quite an attacking one.

The 4-3-3 system - that is four defenders, three midfielders and three have three attackers while still having a strong midfield.

The three midfielders will normally play quite closely together to give protection to the defence and so they cannot be passed around by the opposition.

The three strikers will split across the pitch to provide width “ The 4—3– 3 does not actually differ that much from to the attack. Usually you would have a central attacker with the 4-5-1 one each side of him. Former England Coach Don Howe.

Barcelona play with this system with Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho and Ludovic Giuly. Very few teams actually start with this line- up as you need to have specialist attackers.

But if a manager needs a goal late on in a game then he may opt to move to three up front. Courtesy BBC SPORT

Junior Player Development Education Courses in 2008 ITS BACK ITS FREE AND ITS FUN! The following courses will be held over the coming months. Come and join our new Junior Referee Development Development Program. Massimo Raveino will con- duct a FIFA MA Referee and Be a New Kid on The Refresher Course in August Block!! 2008 at the National Head- quarters in Pago Pago.

Join The Futsal Kids and Coach Development enjoy the game that OFC Technical Director Jim makes Brazil the Best. Selby will be in Pago Pago during early July to facilitate

the following course. Venues Kanana Fou and Pago Park 8.00am to 10.00am Saturdays Only. Club Coach Education, - Junior Licence.. Registra- tions to be announced Boys and Girls age 6 to 13 are all welcome. shortly. Bring T Shirt, Shorts, Socks, Sport Shoes and Shin Guards. Sports Medicine Don’t forget your drink bottle. A Sports Medicine Course is planned for later in the year to train members of clubs in basic first aid and sports medicine. Dates, times and venue will be advised once the course details Please call office at 644-7104 or 644-7105 to register have been confirmed. your child, Page Three Talking Football

FFAS ORDINARY CONGRESS A HUGE SUCCESS

The bright new FFAS logo was unveiled at the Football Federation American Samoa’s historic first Ordinary Congress, which was held on Saturday 1st March 2008.

The Congress had been delayed 24 hours due to a lack of a quorum attributed to the extreme weather condi- tions of high wind, torrential rain and flooding making driving hazardous.

The field at Pago Park had resembled a lake and the driveway a veritable river of fast flowing water that had cascaded down from the mountainside.

Following an opening prayer by executive member Sila Samuelu, the roll call was completed.

Moving onto the business proceedings President Iuli Alex Godinet formally declared the Congress open whilst acknowledging the clubs and thanking them for their patience and attendance.

The approval of the agenda, and the Presidents address followed with the appointment of scrutineers and the receipt and ap- proval of the activity report that illustrated milestones and achievements over the past 2 years.

FFAS Congress delegates were further presented with the minutes of the Founding and Extraordinary Congress, the receipt and consideration of the auditor’s report of the annual accounts and one small amendment to the FFAS Statutes.

The new logo was then unveiled and submitted to the members for their approval. This was unanimously accepted.

The meeting was conducted in a very cordial and professional manner and the Congress delegates approved unanimously all agenda items, including the affiliation fee for the year 2008.

A number of club delegates expressed their thanks to the FFAS Executive and staff whilst looking forward to harmony and a solid football family for the future.

FFAS President Iuli Alex Godinet in closing the first Ordinary Congress thanked the members for their attendance, support and expressions of solidarity for the future development and growth of the federation. Page Four Talking Football

FOOTBALL FOR HEALTH

Playing football is fun. But it is even more fun when you are well prepared and per- form at your best because you meet the needs of you body. This means optimal training, sufficient recovery time and, as important evenly, eating well.

But the fun can easily be spoiled by injuries. Whilst you cannot prevent injuries in general, there is a lot you can do to prevent certain injuries from happening to you in the first place and from happening again.

No doubt the fun will be all gone the moment you test positive in a doping control. It will not help you at all if this positive test was even due to ignorance, e.g. because you used a contami- nated supplement. Whilst doping substances bear a considerable risk to your health and career, there is a way to enhance per- formance which is healthy and allowed: a balanced diet.

Make sure you can enjoy football without any limitations. The facts you need to know about clever training, preventing injuries, the right football food as well as the dangers of intentional and unintentional doping are to be found here. Learn how you get the most out of you favourite game!

Staying healthy need not be a chore. An hour of football three times a week keeps you physi- cally and mentally fit - and is fun, too.

Studies have now proved what many in the football family have thought for a long time: in the long term, regular exercise, such as playing football, is the best guarantee of health. In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) named lack of exercise as the most frequent cause of coro- nary artery disease.

Since then, our understanding of the fatal consequences of physical inactivity has steadily increased. A main risk factor is obesity, one of the epidemics of our times.

More important than the body mass index however, is where the fat is - it is particularly dangerous in and around the abdomen. Your belt size is a useful guide. For men, it should be below 94cm and for women below 80cm. If the belt size is greater than 102cm (men) and 88cm (women) the risk of cardiovascular disease is significantly greater.

Public health awareness campaigns help most to know that exercise keeps us physically and mentally fit. But that does not necessarily mean we exercise more. Why should you exert your- self and dispense with comfort when you (still) feel so good? Many well-intended active pro- grammes fail because many chronic diseases do not appear to be an immediate threat.

This is where football has an enormous advantage: If you enjoy playing the game and can use football to live out your exercise preferences, you will keep playing. For many, it is the psycho- social factors, not the biological ones, that fire our enthusiasm for exercise in the long term. And only then does it have an optimum preventive effect.

Although few people can become rich and famous through football, everyone can become and stay physically and mentally healthy.

See the FFAS web site or FIFA.com for more detail on how you can use Football For Health!!!

Courtesy FIFA DO Zurich

Page Five Talking Football

FUTSAL KIDS

The Football Federation American Samoa (FFAS) Futsal Kids programme kicked off on Saturday morning the 6th March with over 100 youngsters attending two venues at Kanana Fou and Pago Park.

Over 100 boys and girls from age 6 to 13 were part of the FFAS Develop- ment Programme Futsal Kids and enjoyed the opportunity to learn new skills and just have fun.

Futsal is the officially recognised 5 aside game which is extensively used across the world to develop techniques and skills of young players.

Played on the small court or field, Futsal is FIFA's small sided game which was developed in South America, blossomed in Brazil and is now played across the globe.

KONICA FOOTBALL CLUB FFAS CEO Tavita Taumua was very happyBLACK with the ROSES outcome of the days programme.

"I think its great to see the interest that the kids now have in football and Futsal has a major role to play in the development of the 11 side game here in American Samoa," Taumua told FFAS media.

"This has been seen in Brazil for decades where the Brazilian Super Stars such as Ronaldino and World Player of the Year Kaka all learnt their trade before moving to the big field as teenagers and its hoped Futsal and small sided games can have a similar effect in American Samoa".

The programme will be held again each Saturday morning over the next few months at 8:00 in the morning until 10:00.

The Role of the Officials — the men in black…... The Low down on penalties.

Any tackle in the penalty box is risky and when that whistle blows it's heart-sinking time. So what is a penalty? It's the result of any foul which would normally lead to a direct free-kick that is committed by a team inside their own penalty area. The player gets a shot at goal from 12 yards out. The rules of a penalty are that: The goalkeeper can move sideways before the kick is taken but must stay on his goal line All the other players must stand outside the penalty box and cannot enter the area until the ball has been kicked The kicker cannot touch the ball a second time until it has been touched by another player If the referee spots a team-mate of the kicker entering the area before the kick is taken, he can a) order the penalty to be retaken if the penalty is scored, or b) if the penalty is missed, the defending team get an The keeper must stay on his line until the indirect free-kick ball is kicked. If a defender moves into the area and the penalty is missed then the penalty is again retaken. Courtesy BBC SPORT Page Six Talking Football

A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS

Amputee Football in War-torn Liberia Horrors enough are generated by war but, occasionally, man’s ability to rise above them generates powerful examples of inspiration which reach far beyond the immedi- ate battleground.

Take Dennis Parker. He is 33 and from Tubmanburg, Liberia. In 1990, at 16, he was forced to take up arms on behalf of then-President Charles Taylor. After three years of teenage killing for the National Patriotic Front, his right leg was shattered in a street gun battle. One year later he had the leg amputated just below the knee. He fought on for four more years and then found himself begging on the streets. A tackle flies in during a match in Monrovia. Outfield players are very agile on their crutches.

Yet now he is a hero, as a star goal scorer for the Liberia Amputee Sports Association one of half a dozen teams who field a total of more than 150 players – almost all of them, like Parker, victims of the genocidal civil war which wrecked the country.

Much of the credit for the chink of sporting relief in a bleak landscape of hate and mistrust belongs to the Rev. Robert Karloh, a Pentecostal minister who had seen the therapeutic value of amputee football in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

It was Karloh whose negotiating patience persuaded Parker and more than 100 fellow amputees to end an occupation of Tay- lor’s former headquarters and try to rebuild their lives – unlikely as it seemed even to them - through sport.

Suspicious, starving and initially belligerent ... Karloh persuaded the suspicious, starving and initially belligerent Parker to help him create the LASA club. Their first match was a defeat by a team from Sierra Leone. But they finished runners-up in the first All-African Amputee Football Championship last February in Freetown to prompt a US government donation of €30,000-worth of medical support and kit.

Liberia lost a thrilling final by 4-3 to Ghana whose Collins Gyamfi finished as the tournament’s 10-goal top scorer. Sierra Leone’s Amadu “Bob Jones” Kamara was voted the event’s top player.

Amputee football has rules all its own. Outfield players have only one leg, goalkeepers only one arm and, if the ball strikes the crutch of a defending player or the arm stump of a goalkeeper in or around the goal area then a penalty is awarded. The goal itself is half the size of the orthodox version.

Parker and his team-mates have especial reason to be grateful for soccer. Some 13 years of war left the Liberian economy in tatters, its people massively impoverished. Very little mutual sympathy is available for anyone, least of all amputees whose very injuries are often considered as marking them out as having been boy soldiers.

He says: “People now take amputees to be bad people, like animals. When the fighting stopped there were thousands of us, a mob, on the streets, with nowhere to go and no-one to take care of us. Luckily for us soccer allows us to be... well... renewed. And it has helped me go to places I would never have been. Page Seven Talking Football

A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS ctd

"Before, taxis would not stop for a disabled man" “I have managed to go to Freetown in Sierra Leone, to Europe, to Russia. When I walk on the streets, people know me. We are able to live again. Before, taxis would not stop for a disabled man because the drivers would think we had been responsible for killing their families. “Now all that is changing, little by little.”

Karloh became involved in the African amputee football movement through his work as deputy director of disarmament. For him the success and popularity of the players is not only a form of social work but a feature in national reconstruction. He says: “The amputee status is a stigma. There is a tendency for people to reject these men who fought the war that tore the country apart. Now everybody comes along to see them play football and cheer for them. The community likes their game, it is a tool for reconciliation. It sends a message: ‘I have forgiven you.’ It’s a form of healing.

“For example, we have people who fought against each other now playing on the same side in harmony.” Not only do Liberia’s amputee footballers play in harmony they played with enough success to qualify for the Amputee World Cup in Turkey. This is one of six disabilities which ‘own’ their own international tournaments. The other categories are blind- ness, cerebral palsy, deaf and hearing impaired, partially sighted as well as learning disabilities.

Jeff Davis is national football development manager of disability at the Football Association in London. He says: “When we started in 1999 our main aim was to give everybody an opportunity to reach their potential. That may just be playing locally but it could also be moving through the player pathway and eventually playing for one of the elite national teams.

"It’s really serious competition and the players want to be the best players they can” “So, at the beginning, it’s just to play the game and, as they progress, it’s really serious competition and the players want to be the best players they can.”

The world in which Davis works in England and Europe is far different in context to the one in which Karloh found himself in war-torn Africa. But Davis strikes a similar chord when he says: “Before I joined the FA I worked for a disability organisation and I saw that sport could be really powerful for these guys to help them with rehabilitation or just to help them as an extra activity, something to enhance their lives.”

In the case of Dennis Parker and his Liberian team-mates that translates as helping them regain a level of respect among their fellow countrymen; the rattle of an AK-47 has been superseded by the roar of a football stadium.

As Dennis Bright, Sierra Leone’s Sports Minister, told all the players who starred at the African Amputee Championship: “You have proved to the world that you are not second-class citizens but real heroes.” Ends - Author Credit: Football’s Hidden Story/Keir Ranedge Photos Credit: Football's Hidden

Players who have lost a leg build up tremendous Goalkeepers must have only one arm and outfield An exuberant player goes through some strength in their arms which enables them to players only one leg to qualify for an amputee team. warm up exercises in the goalmouth before a move swiftly around the pitch on their crutches. match in Monrovia. FOOTBALL FEDERATION FOOTBALL EQUIPMENT GUIDE

It's difficult to over emphasise the importance of having well FOOTBALL FEDERATION fitted football boots and with the leagues commencing soon we AMERICAN SAMOA felt a few tips may be useful. National Headquarters Pago Park PO Box 999413 There is a huge variety of boots Phone: 684 644 7104 available at Fax: 684 644 7102 wildly varying Email: [email protected] prices, but the

Web site www.ffas.as most expensive ones on the Visit the new look ffas.as market won't necessarily be The World Game in l Kids the best ones American Samoa for you, and they certainly won't make you a better player.

So when you're choosing your next pair, forget style and think about practicality and comfort. Firstly, try and understand the shape of your feet and your running style.

Also think about if you are flat-footed or have a high arch. Ideally foot- The website of ball boots will fit snugly, although during teenage years with feet still growing it is advisable to allow some room to compensate. the month

www.ffas.as Remember the correct equipment is not only for your comfort and per- formance but also a requirement of the FIFA Laws of the Game. In the next issue we will look at this in greater detail.

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