Women footballers in camp

THE Fiji women's football team has begun preparation for the coming FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The 27-member squad marched into camp last week under the leadership of the new technical official and coach Timo Jankowski.

Team manager Tulia Cawa said after the six months COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, there was a need for a workout for the players to be better prepared as they looked forward to future competitions.

“This is our first camp after so many months away from the field and most of the girls have been doing their own training,” Cawa said.

“This is a great opportunity to have our new technical officer Timo to engage with players. We have official coaches who will be with us during the two weeks camp. He (Timo) will be looking at areas that need to improve.

“We will be focusing on their fitness since they have been on lockdown for six months and during training, we will look at some of their techniques, footwork and kicking.

“We don’t have our Labasa players because if they have to travel, they will be quarantined for 14 days and since the Super League begins at the end of the month, we don't want them to miss their games representing their district.”

Jankowski, according to the Fiji Football Association president, Rajesh Patel, is well known in the region and its culture after spending a year in New Zealand as a football player in 2000.

His credentials include attaining his UEFA ‘A’ Licence in 2011 in Germany via the German Football Federation and again did his refresher for the UEFA ‘A’ Licence in 2016 with the Swiss Football Federation.

He is a graduate in international business management from the University of Lorach and he has written two books on specific football development areas which have been highly received from the football hierarchy in Europe.