FIFA ranking matches ‘costly’

FIJI geographical location hinders our national teams from attending FIFA ranking matches, says Fiji Football Association chief executive officer Mohammed Yusuf.

The Fiji men’s team is ranked 168th while the women’s are ranked 72nd in the world.

“Attending these matches is the biggest issue for us,” Yusuf said.

“Compared with other Asian countries, Europe, they are just able to drive across the borders and compete in these matches. But for us, there are a lot of processes we need to undergo such as travelling to countries that are very far away which will then be very costly.”

He said our national teams are only able to attend tournaments or international matches that are close.

“Unless it’s a very important tournament, then we can attend because it is very costly for us to see our full team at every tournament,” Yusuf said.

“So, we have missed a lot of international ranking matches over the years because of this issue.”

Meanwhile, Yusuf said the association had set its eyes on a handful of FIFA-ranked matches for the year.

“We have a few matches lined up which we hope to attend and improve our ranking. We have three international matches in March against New Caledonia, Solomons Islands, and Tahiti with two of them being FIFAranked matches.”

Fiji will also be attending the OFC Nations Cup which will feature the top eight teams in the Pacific.

“Hopefully we can win these matches and improve our ranking.”

The Fiji men’s team’s best ranking was 94th place in July 1994.

The lowest ranking was in 2015 at 199th place.

So, we have missed a lot of international ranking matches over the years because of this issue – Mohammed Yusuf