Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) Media & Marketing Director, Simon Abana is among a record 140 participants from countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, America, and South America that attended a FIFA Comet conference in Sibanic, Croatia.
The conference brings together users of the world’s leading football management platform Comet to share experiences, build connections and learn new advancement tools from Analyticom the brains-trust behind the innovations.
The Comet conference was last held in 2018 and returns after four years due to covid.
A key component of Comet is aligned with FIFA platforms such as FIFA Connect ID for player registration and FIFA TMS for international transfers which we have been using it since 2018.
“I was a participant in 2018 among other OFC representatives but this year I’m the only one from Oceania to attend,” Abana said.
“We started implementing Comet in 2018 with the TSL and Solomon Cup followed by the Solrais Women’s Premier League, futsal, and youth competitions. The system brings a professional approach to how to administrate leagues compared to the manual process used in the past and having a database of how many registered players, coaches, referees, and football administrators are active in the country.
This is part of SIFF’s strategic plan for the 2023-2026 cycle to advance the game via technology.
“I am so honored and privileged to represent my country, SIFF, and OFC as the only participant from our part of the world among the 140 participants from footballing nations around the world.
“I’ve learned some new things regarding course management in Comet, how to make the data public to fans online and process to use the system to pay referees and national team players, and most importantly how to use the data for communication and marketing our website includes Club Management Features, Sales, Events and Training, Websites, performance. We only use the primary interface of Comet to admin competitions and registration compared to bigger countries such as Argentina which has the most registered players of 4.5 million on the system.
During the introduction, he received a special mention from the hosts as the only representative from Oceania.
“We are so fortunate to be among the three top users of Comet alongside New Zealand and Fiji. Based on data from Comet we have the most players playing in Oceania compared to other countries which shows we have a high number of players moving abroad.
“I’m so pleased to see we have made progress in this frontier despite the challenges we have as a country. I want to thank SIFF President William Lai and his executive for their support and approval to be here at the conference. Also, CEO Leonard Paia for understanding and administrative guidance to make this trip happen.
He continued that, there are so many possibilities to advance the game with this cutting-edge technology going forward in this digital age.
The conference ends yesterday (Wednesday 11) with topics on COMET LIVE Mobile Apps Features, Data and Privacy Management in COMET UI, New Flexible Engine for Match-related Data Collection, FIFA Clearing House Update regarding FIFA Connect, TMS, and a network-building dinner to wrap things up.
Participating Associations
Americas (14)
- CONMEBOL – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol
- CONCACAF – The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
- AFA – Argentinian Football Association
- FBF – Football Federation of Bolivia
- BCS – British Columbia Soccer Association
- CSA – Canadian Soccer Association
- FFC – Football Federation of Chile
- FCF – Football Federation of Colombia
- FEF – Football Federation of Ecuador
- APF – Football Association of Paraguay
- FPF – Football Federation of Peru
- USSF – United States Soccer Federation
- AUF – Football Association of Uruguay
- FVF – Football Federation of Venezuela
Asia/Oceania (2)
- QFA – Qatar Football Association
- SIFF – Solomon Islands Football Federation
Europe (24)
- UEFA – Union of European Football Associations
- FSHF – Football Association of Albania
- ABFF – Association of Belarus Football Federations
- RBFA – Royal Belgian Football Association
- NSBIH – Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- HNS – Croatian Football Federation
- CFA – Cyprus Football Association
- FSF – Faroe Islands Football Association
- FAF – Football Association of Finland
- GFA – Gibraltar Football Association
- KSI – Iceland Football Association
- IFA – Irish Football Association
- FAI – Football Association of Ireland
- FFK – Kosovo Football Federation
- LFF – Lithuanian Football Federation
- LFF – Latvian Football Federation
- FFM – Macedonian Football Federation
- MFA – Malta Football Association
- FMF – Football Federation of Moldova
- FSCG – Football Association of Montenegro
- FRF – Romanian Football Federation
- SFA – Scottish Football Association
- FSS – Football Federation of Serbia
- FAW – Football Association of Wales
