Fiji FACT: ‘District Pride’ set to make injured Suva’s players to sacrifice

As recently mentioned, Wasasala and Mateinaqara were ruled out of Fiji FACT’s semi-final with other three players of Suva’s squad. The semi-finals were postponed from this Saturday (28th Nov) to today (29th Nov) as the due bad weather and pitch conditions – Fiji FA is still to confirm the matches will go on today as the pitch might still be in not playable conditions.

But, when preparing for the match yesterday before the postpomenents, it was confirmed by media and fans both Christopher Wasasala and Beniaminio Mateinaqara were warming up for Suva. The info regarding the players were not available was given by FBC News as Suva’s coach Babs Khan informed in video names of the players that were not going to play against Labasa in the semi-final.

Questions arised regarding if or not Suva had lied regarding the avaibility of the players to media. After the publishing the article, Suva staff got in touch with Oceania Football Center to give more details about the case. They say the coach Khan did not lie as per the time he affirmed the players were not available because they were really ruled out by doctors.

The info given is that Christopher Wasasala and Beniamino Mateinaqara insisted on playing based on ‘District Pride’ matters – both players do not originally come from Suva. Kelvin Naidu and Laisenia Raura were confirmed out by Suva staff. Both Wasasala and Mateinaqara were warming up before the match and they were going to be revalueted by doctors before the kick-off, that did not happen due the postponement of Suva’s match against the home side Labasa.

Whether the matches go on today or not, Suva has more time to treat its key players that are injured in order to play their full force against a motivated Labasa side contesting for a spot in the grand final of the last major tournament of the year in Fiji.