Fijian football walks towards professionalism

Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Lambert Maltock said in an exclusive interview with Oceania Football Center that football in OFC region must initiate a professional football platform in 2021.

According to Fiji Football Association (FFA) CEO Mohammed Yusuf, the country’s first professional men’s football league must start next year – “We are getting help from experts running the A-League (Australia’s highest level of professional football league) and also FIFA is backing us on this,” he said.

The professional tournament would not kill Vodafone Premier League. Yusuf said that there will be a franchise competition that must start in November 2021. The first edition of the new league must be contested by six teams: three from the West, two from the South and one from the North.

Yusuf pointed that there will be a tender for business companies around the country who are interested to own one of the teams are going to take total ownership of their clubs. The company can put their logos on the jersey and other sporting kits as they are the owners.

The matches must be contested on Wednesdays and Saturadays. All matches are supposed to be telecasted on TV. The top two teams must qualify for Oceania Champions League.