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.