Pacific children take part in World Cup opening ceremony

A selection of 12-year-old football players and aspiring journalists from the Pacific Islands have taken part in the opening ceremony at the World Cup in Moscow this morning.

Kids from American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga and Vanuatu are in Russia this week as part of the sixth annual Football For Friendship programme, which aims to promote essential values embodied by football with the younger generation.

Semisi Semisi from Samoa was selected to attend as a young journalist and said he's had the chance to meet other young people from the likes of China and South Africa.

"[The highlight of my experience has been] meeting friends from different parts of the world. I've made a lot of new friends," he said.

"I didn't imagine I'd be here one day but I'm here now."

With Samoa not at the World Cup, Semisi Semisi said he supports Brazil to win but admits Cristiano Ronaldo is his favourite player, creating something of a dilemma.

"I would like Ronaldo to beat Neymar in the final!"

Lui Muavesi from Tonga Football is in Russia accompanying his country's young representatives, player Kalisitaine Seau and aspiring journalist Anita Hufanga.

"Rugby is the number one sport in Tonga. These two kids have created history, competing at a very young age of 12 to represent Tonga for a World Championship," he said.

"It's quite big in Tonga for these two kids to participate in Football 4 Friendship - the whole Tonga knows about these two kids for now."

The Kingdom won the OFC Under 19 Football Championship Qualifier earlier this month to advance to the main draw for the first time.

Lui Muavesi has spent the past 16 years working with young players for Tonga Football and is now focused on delivering the Just Play programme, funded by New Zealand and Australian aid and the UEFA foundation.

"The kids that played in the Under 19s created history," he said.

"All these kids started back in 2009 with this Just Play programme and I do believe that if the programme was not piloted in Tonga in 2009 until today I don't think we would have achieved that result that we had in the Cook Islands."