Roy, Naziah support Labasa, Ba women

Fiji’s and ATK Mohun Bagan captain Roy Krishna and his wife Naziah are grateful to sponsor the Ba and Labasa women football teams in the 2021 Digicel Women’s Super Premier League. Both have been cleared yesterday after spending their 14 days in quarantine and traveled to Ba to meet their family and friends.

They have also embarked on a mission to see that Fijian women footballers make a mark in the region.

“We are very proud to support both our hometowns Ba and Labasa players as sponsors because we believe in our women and we want to give back to our people,” Krishna said.

“They’ve so much potential and we think they both have a real chance of winning the league. “They should be the pride of our people.

“We’ve been supporting them for some time on a small scale but now so we decided to formally offer our financial help this year when the Women’s Super League started. “This is because we understand how difficult it is for the women’s teams to get financial help and sponsorship.

“We see how hard they train every day but there’s very little support for them from the community.”

Naziah-Krishna, who is also the director of Mai Life Café, said she has been involved in women’s football for a while now.

Lack of financial support

She knows that women’s football in the country doesn’t get as much financial support as the men.

“I’ve always advocated for the empowerment of women in all spaces. Roy and I talked at length about the difficulties that women’s clubs have when they try to get support from the corporate community.

“We decided that instead of waiting for someone else to invest in women’s football that we should walk the talk and show the difference one can make by investing in women.”

Both decided to invest in their hometowns through MaiLife (the magazine, shop and cafe).

“We believe that both teams have so much potential.

“We also know those involved with the two teams. Since we spend most of our time in both towns we could also provide any other assistance such as support during training when we are available.

“I also hope that more businesshouses see the value in investing in women and take up the opportunity.

“Fiji has a good chance of participating in the upcoming Women’s World Cup if we run good competitions not only at national but district levels as well.

She added it can inspire more women and girls to take part in football and be able to give them the much-needed opportunity to play.

“This a chance for our national coach to select from a wider pool of players. Even if we don’t make it to the next women’s world cup we are laying the groundwork for the future women’s world cups.

“We have a real chance of being one of the top teams in the OFC. “We can prepare well but if the community at large doesn’t invest in women it would be an uphill battle for the women,” she said.