Labasa supporters raise petition against supposed ‘derogatory statements’ from local media

Recently, lots of supports from Labasa were very angry from statements from one particular commentator from local media towards its team and citizens – as they mention in a petition they recently raised against ‘derogatory statements’ from this commentator. In the petition created by an user called ‘Labasa Football Fan Club’ it is mentioned: “FBC’s football commentator, Raymond Stoddart, has been making derogatory statements aimed at Labasa football fans, and Labasa people in general, for some time now. We, the undersigned, are much agitated by this and are making a formal request to you to remedy this“.

The statements in the petition are harsh against Stoddart’s words, claiming he was disrepectful in various opportunities to Labasa FA and also to its supporters and people. “Raymond Stoddart’s attacks on the people of Labasa are not in the best interests of his employer FBC nor the sponsors of their football coverage. A large number of supporters, including the undersigned who were loyal listeners of FBC coverage have now switched to other media whenever there is a choice, and only listen to Raymond Stoddart’s commentary when no other media station is carrying coverage” it is written in the piece.

Stoddart is a known football commentator in Fiji and he is known as “the voice of Fiji football”, but the Labasa supporters are currently angry with some of his statements. According to Babasiga Lions fan club, Stoddart has been disrepectful to Labasa for a number of occasions. He was also blamed for words in the most recent Labasa match – the 2-1 defeat against Ba. The turning point to create this petition were Stoddart words in match Labasa was not involved – Ba against Suva – when the commentator said: “Labasa fans are saying that Labasa lost to Ba last week because Raymond made decisions on the field“.

The petition, that is headed to Mr. Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, also says in this final part that “Raymond Stoddart will benefit from training and development activities on appropriate language and commentary on state media and to increase his professionalism and competency in his role. The standard of sports broadcasting has significantly increased globally and our media personnel on state owned media should not be a source of embarrassment for us, Fijians“.