We’re Playing for Fiji, Suva Reps Reminded
Suva football captain Akuila Mateisuva has reminded the players that they are not only representing their district at the Oceania Football Confederation Champions League competition. “The boys know that they are representing our country,” Mateisuva said.
He also called on the Fijian community in Vanuatu to support them in their Group matches against defending champions New Zealand’s Auckland City, Lupe Ole Soaga of Samoa and Solomon Warriors.
Suva takes on Lupe Ole Soaga tomorrow at 3pm.
The Samoan-based club suffered a setback after OFC Media, confirmed that up to 12 players will miss the finals due to registration rules.
Team manager Lai Tautiaga said: “There are quite a few issues which surfaced this year. And it’s our first time to be informed of such regulations. But we have players who we thought that the qualifying round was sufficient for them to attend the finals; however, it was a different story.
“And also our federation has put forward our transfer window. So the majority of our players had to transfer to different clubs. So 12 players from the qualifying tournament left because of that reason.”
Some of those players were from New Zealand, such as Jamie Mason and Harrison Bolton-Roberts, and Englishman Jared Cunniff who has returned to North Shore United in Auckland.
An OFC statement issued to RNZ Pacific stated that: “because those players returned to New Zealand and joined other clubs here, they effectively transferred and the deadline to register players for the Champions League was February 8th, so those players became ineligible to compete in Vanuatu.”