Changes needed for Fiji Rugby

The Fiji sevens team celebrate their last win in December 2010
at the Wellington Sevens beating Samoa 19-14 in the final

The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) will name a coach to lead Fiji to the International Rugby Board (IRB) world sevens series next month on Monday

The FRU has failed the people of Fiji in the past a trend which seems set to continue this season.

Serious questions are already being asked of the four, unknown in the coaching field, candidates who have been shortlisted to lead our sevens gladiators. Only one meets the qualification criteria but all four are virtually unknown and have never lead a sevens team in an international event.

This action by the FRU perhaps indicates that we may be going for another trophy-less season.

Former and most successful coach Waisale Serevi also highlighted the huge problem of interference by the FRU in team selection. Do the FRU know how to run a sports team? The coach should always select the team, this way he is answerable to the people. Serevi is the only Fijian coach to ever win the world series, who in the FRU has credentials even close to that to question his selection? Serevi was removed because he argued against this mind boggling action the the FRU.

Interference by Fiji Rugby Union officials in the selection of national sevens teams is nothing new and needs to be stopped. That was one of the reasons I was dropped because I argued with the FRU on the selection of players. I had wanted players I knew could do the job at the 2009 Sevens Rugby World Cup but the FRU told me that I could not take some of the players. We have no say and it’s nothing new. I questioned them and they did not like it, So I was moved out of the way.

The interference of the FRU is an even bigger problem then their questionable selection of coaches.

Gordon Tietjens, the most successful coach in Sevens history chooses his own players, a lot of whom have ended up in the world champion New Zealand fifteens team.

Tietjens highlighted that Fiji remains the only team in the series who has not selected a coach yet. while other teams are going over strategies in training, the FRU has delayed coach selection.

The future is indeed looking bleak unless drastic changes are made by the FRU in the coming week.

An end to 60 minute football



Malakai Tiwa in action against waitakere United in
in the first leg of the O-league final. Ba won 2-1

Now that the Sahu Khan era has finally ended, the focus switches from referees to getting rid of 60 minute football. Fiji champions Ba FC will represent the country at the O-League tournament and they begin the tournament this Sunday against New Caledonian champions AS Mont Dore and we wish them all the best.

Now the winner of the league every year qualifies for the O-League, where we play clubs from around the Pacific in 90 minute matches. Apart from Ba who qualified for the inaugural O-League final in 2006, no other Fiji team has has successfully gone past the group stage. This could be attributed to the lack of 90 minute football played in the country.

The Fiji Football association hosts five tournaments every year, The Champion vs Champion series and the National football league are the only tournaments from those that are played for the whole 90 minute duration. 60 minute football is a silly concept simply because the rest of the world plays football for 90 minutes (45 minutes a side).

New FFA board has promised an end to 60 minute football in next years league. This shows that the new administration at least have the right idea. Playing 90 minute matches regularly will help teams better adapt when playing in international tournaments. This is mainly because fitness level and mind frame required in 90 minute matches is very different from 60 minute matches.

However the FFA must be mindful of how the tournaments will be played, especially since they plan to introduce two more teams next year taking the total number of teams in the super premier division to 12. How will they have 12 teams play each other in 90 minute matches over a week? that is for the FFA to decide but it must be seriously considered.

The New president Rajesh Patel does have many plans which look good but if and how they will be implemented is still a topic of discussion among the people and teams.

My future plan is to call a board meeting, get the portfolio right for all my vice-presidents and from there we get to see the areas we need to concentrate our effort into. We want to focus on development, administrative a little bit especially from grassroots level and programs that have been implemented we want to make sure that we will enhance it and take it further up.

He certainly has the right plans with grassroot level development and the football loving public of Fiji await eagerly for these changes. The future of Fiji football certainly looks brighter.

The return of the King

Waisale Serevi in his prime

The Fiji sevens team went through the 2010/2011 International rugby board (IRB) world sevens series without winning a single tournament.

The Fiji rugby union (FRU) is now looking for a suitable candidate to guide the national team for the next season and has various new policies. They are looking for a dedicated coach as well as players who will have to give up playing 15s-a side rugby through out the sevens series.

The best possible news Fiji rugby fans can hope for is that Fiji sevens legend Waisale Serevi, known around the world as the king of sevens, has declared his availability for the coaching job.This is very good news indeed considering the FRU sacked him previously without giving any good reason despite the fact that he won us tournaments.

It was baffling as to why The FRU would sack Serevi who remains the only coach in Fiji's history to win the overall IRB Sevens world series.Serevi would some times take a totally new team into tournaments and still manage to attain victory. New Zealand, who are the most successful sevens team in history do not change coaches even when they lose all year and their coach Gordon Tietjens breeds players for the All Blacks 15s team and always wins tittles in the sevens frame.

The people of Fiji were up in arms against the FRU when Serevi was removed to the point that the police needed to step in to guard the FRU headquarters. Fans even took their frustration out on his replacement Joe Savou by stoning his residence.

Serevi has spent the last few years running sevens coaching camps around the world while Fiji slumped to bad defeats often winning one tournament a season and sometimes going home empty handed like the previous season. This is what Serevi had to say after declaring his interest for the coaching job:

I tried to walk away from Fiji rugby but it's part of my life and I cannot do that. Fiji is always in my heart. I have done a lot of things for Fiji and I don't regret my time doing that.

This is why the people of Fiji will always love Serevi, win or lose his heart is always for Fiji, a contrast to the previous coach, Iliesa Tanivula, who is an ex-New Zealand player. We can only hope that the FRU maks the right decision and permanently gives Serevi the sevens coaching job so that we can see Fiji win again. It is time for the king to return to his throne.

New President, Same old problem.

The foul which resulted in a penalty during the semi final
(clearly outside the box)

Doctor Sahu khan's 26 years as the Fiji Football president came to an end recently when he was replaced by Rajesh Patel.

However one of the biggest problems in Fiji soccer reared its ugly head once again during the annual Inter District Championship in Suva earlier this week.

Bad refereeing has constantly been highlighted in Fiji but Sahu khan always denied it and protected the referees even when they constantly made bad calls.

Lautokas IDC came to an end during the semi finals when Veteran referee, Bobby Dave gave a blatantly bad penalty to Labasa for a foul which clearly happened outside the box.

The Lautoka side were understandably disappointed, as their money time and efforts were wasted because of a stupid call by a referee.

The Lautoka Football president Shelendra Prasad highlighted the need for refereeing standards to improve.

We feel that we were hard done by the match officials. The incident happened out of the box. One wrong decision and the tournament was over for us. This is not the first time that this has happened to us. We will hold an emergency executive meeting to discuss this issue and raise our concerns with Fiji FA. Certainly, the parent body needs to up lift the standard of refereeing in the country.

In the past referees have been able to get away with what ever they please, not having to face any consequences.

An official complaint has been lodged against the referee and the public will now have to wait to see if this new president does something about an obvious problem or just like his predecessor waves the problem away.

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