Oh my... God

It has been an awesome Christmas and New Year's here in Tonga. I've had Tommy O'Hara, who perfected the art of doing nothing during his three weeks here, Dave Michael, who went through a truck-load of SPF +30 and Stevie Trik who could not keep still for longer than 10 minutes here in Tonga. During the time the boys were here we pretty much ate, drank, went for a daily swim and managed to fit in a couple of trips to Sunday Club Island.

Tommy

Dave

Stelio in the middle

We had a great Christmas Day as myself, Tom, David and my housemate Tomasi had a Bachelor's Christmas. Waking up at 11am after a few too many beers the night before we (except Tom of course) started preparing an afternoon feast consisting of tuna sashimi, pan fried tuna, roast vegetables, octopus, salad, wine, beers, rum, loads of chips and lollies and of course the PIG. At about 2pm we sat down on the balcony of 'The Palace', complete with an ocean view, and pretty much sat there drinking beers and eating food for the rest of the day, was a good way to spend my Tongan Christmas!

The pig being devoured

Christmas Drinks

I really appreciated the boys coming over here, it is easily the most expensive time of year to fly from Australia to Tonga and it was great to spend some time with three good mates from home. Hopefully one day I'll be in the position to visit them when they are living and working overseas.

The Pig

Now that the boys have gone I have started focusing all my efforts into getting the Tongan Under 17 team ready for their World Cup Qualifiers next week, which are supposed to start with a game against Tahiti on Sunday, 9th January.

I say supposed to be starting on the 9th as the Executive Committee of the Tongan Football Association have only just realised that the 9th, is a Sunday and they want us to forfeit the game against Tahiti. Sunday is a holy day here in Tonga, it is illegal for anyone to exercise, for shops to be open or to do anything at all really except to eat, sleep and go to church. There has also, apparently, been a precedent set as no Tongan national team has ever played on a Sunday. I think that is a load of rubbish and the Executive Committee are just making up excuses so people can't accuse them of being impious by allowing a bunch of teenagers to play a game of football on a Sunday.


While I can understand their stance if the game was supposed to be played here in Tonga, it's not. So it's not a legal issue, it's a 'moral' issue. It's an easy decision for a bunch of old Tongans to sit in a room and decide a team shouldn't play but the boys want to play, the other coaches (who are all Tongan) want them to play and all of the staff here (except one) want them to play.

The reality is, we will more than likely get slaughtered by Tahiti who have had over 12 months to prepare and have been playing in their national second division for a year. We've had five weeks and four friendly games against teams of varying skill and Tahiti will probably vie with New Zealand for the OFC's spot at the 2011 Under 17 World Cup. But it's not about winning, it's about the boys who have worked hard over the past five to six weeks being denied a chance to play in a FIFA World Cup Qualifying competition by a bunch of old men who think they know better. It is also about common sense, which is in short supply here in Tonga. What is the point of paying all the money to send a team to NZ and then just forfeiting the first game?


I met with a few members from the Committee today and tried to explain this to them. In as many words they said "we have no chance of winning anyway and it will be good for the boys to play the other three games regardless". It was not really the response I was looking for so I decided to try a different tact, I explained to them that if 'God' really is all powerful and has a hand in everything here on Earth then he must have had a hand in selecting all 18 boys in the squad, to which they agreed. I then said that 'God' must have played a hand in scheduling the match against Tahiti on Sunday so 'God' must have a good reason for wanting the boys to play that game on a Sunday.

Clutching at straws I know but they listened and will let me know of their decision at Midday tomorrow.