The Delta Tigers are willing to reinforce their squad for the restart of Vodafone Premier League; Rewa is in talks to sign with Ba’s player Darold Kakasi. Kakasi recently played the Men in Black in the 2020 OFC Champions League and also represented his country Solomon Islands in the OFC U23 Olympic Qualifiers held in Fiji last year.
It is also known Rewa applied for the transfer of Mohammed Naizal. The player that already represented Rewa in the past recently moved to New Zealand football – he was playing for Drury United.
Darold Kakasi – OFC Media
Rewa had a very good start in the Vodafone Premier League season winning four of the five matches so far. According to Rewa’s president Nazeel Buksh “our intension is to go all out and win the competition and for that we need depth in the team” so the club continues to look for options to reinforce their squad in order to win their first ever national league title.
As Papua New Guinea put on a display of support against gender-based violence (GBV), football in Papua New Guinea also did its part in showing support for the cause-saying no to GBV. The staff of PNG Football Association and Hekari United joined the march in Port Moresby, while in Lae, the Lae City displayed placards bearing message against GBV.
One club that did not wait to react to the issues are the Tusbab Stallions Football Club, a club based in Madang in the north of Port Moresby. “We know GBV and other issues of gender exists, we know HIV exist, and we did not wait to react”, says Conrad Wadunah, the Director of the club.
The club made a bold decision last year to appoint two female to very important roles in the club: the Head Coach and the Team Manager. Rachel Wadunah is the Head Coach and Juanita Kalip Tawi is the Team Manager and they are leading a group of men in the the National Soccer League – the major football league in Papua New Guinea.
Juanita (left) and Rachel (right) have important roles in Tusbab Stallions
“The club is living up to its slogan, of being more than just a football club, and is using soccer to address issues of gender, women and girls’ empowerment and the supporting roles men and boys play in addressing the critical issues the province and country is facing,” says Conrad – “We are doing what we can in a small way, and we hope it can have a ripple effect on our women and girls in the province and country. We are using football to educate, to empower-there is more to football than kicking the balls for 90 minutes,” he added.
Oceania Football Center congratulates Tusbab Stallions and all football players, clubs and institutions that are standing against gender-based violence.
Telekom S-League (TSL) Board and clubs’ coaches and managers attended a meeting at Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) headquarters on Monday to know more information about the next Telekom S-League season.
According to local media, eight teams had representatives in the meeting: Henderson Eels, Isabel, Kossa FC, Laugu United, Malaita Kingz, Marist, Real Kakamora and Solomon Warriors. It was confirmed in this meeting that 2020 Telekom S-League will kick-off on August 8th. It was also confirmed that the Registration Period opened 6th July and is set to close on 5th August 2020.
2020 Telekom S-League kicks-off on August 8
Football clubs are allowed to start training as SIFF received the green light from Solomon Islands’ government’s COVID-19 oversight committee to resume football activities.
Solomon Warriors are the current title holders and they have a strong side to fight for the title one more year. You can check the full standings of the last Telekom S-League season by clicking here.
After almost a year playing futsal, young midfielder Ronaldo Wilkins is back to 11-a-side football in the 2020 PVFA Mix First & Second Division Independence Cup.
The 20-year-old forward is playing the tournament for AS Ambassador that is currently playing in the second-tier of Port Vila’s football league system. He last played 11-a-side football last year when he represented Vanuatu in 2019 OFC Olympic Qualifiers held in Fiji.
Ronaldo Wilkins
It is not know if he is going to keep playing for AS Ambassador after this tournament. There are some rumours that he could join a PVFA Premier League club but it is not confirmed. Anyway it is very good to see Wilkins back to the pitch.
As it was previously reported, Lami FC will not play Vodafone Senior League – the second-tier of Fijian football – this year. However the true reason behind it was not clear as there were no reports about this issue.
According to reliable sources, Lami could not play the tournament due to lack of compliance with Fiji Football Association (FFA) regulations as no club matches were being held in the district. There are some rumours that Lami is not affiliated to FFA anymore just like Levuka and Vatukoula, but there is no official confirmation about it.
The 2020 Vodafone Senior League will have eleven team split in two zones: one zone with five teams and another zone with six teams. You can see more information about the upcoming Senior League season by clicking here.
Alongside very important player from New Zealand football scenario such as Emiliano Tade and Cameron Howieson, the young Fijian defender Shuiab Khan continues the development of his football in New Zealand; this time playing for Central United in the Lotto NRFL Premier. Shuiab was a regular starter in the superb campaign of Waitakere United in the previous season of the New Zealand top-tier league the ISPS Handa Premiership – Khan and Waitakere finished third in the season that was forced to finish before as scheduled due COVID-19 pandemics.
Now, the Fijian that already reperesented his country in one FIFA U20 World Cup back in 2015, is giving his best to keep Central United in the top of the table of the top-tier league of the Northern Region of New Zealand.
Khan in a friendly match of Central United – Phototek
Shuaib Khan is being a consistent choice by the coach Kris Bright in the starting eleven of Central in the season so far. In the last weekened, Khan helped the yellow side to beat 1-0 away from home Birkenhead United as now Central is placed second in the table before winning all their three matches in the league.
The good performances of the 24-year-old player should be attracting the interest of Fiji National Team head coach Flemming Serritslev and the defender can be close to receive their first call-up to the BulaBoys – something that he is certainly deserving.
Suva had a good start in the current season of Vodafone Premier League in Fiji; but the team direction is aiming even higher as the Capital Boys are expecting to count on the services of four important players when the national league restarts this month. According to Suva’s president Ritesh Pratap, the club applied for transfers of four players from Ba and one from Labasa: the defender Laisenia Raura, the goalkeepers Beniamino Mateinaqara and Atunaisa Naucukidi and the midfielder Simione Nabenu from Ba; the Labasa’s attacking midfielder Ravnesh Singh is also set to reinforce Suva’s squad.
Raura, Mateinaqara and Singh
Both Laiseinia Raura and Ravnesh Singh already represented Suva in the past and might be close to rejoin the team. Recently, contacts in Fijian capital denied the interest on Beniamino Mateinaqara, but now chairman Ritesh Pratap comes to reveal Suva is applying for the Fiji national team goalkeeper transfer.
Atunaisa Naucukidi is a promising goalkeeper that already represented Fiji at youth level – it will be interesting to see the comepetition Suva will bring to the goalkeeping position as the team already counts on the services of the also Fiji international Jovilisi Borisi.
Football in Fiji suffers a major blow as the company Vodafone decided to suspend the sponsorship given to Fiji FA in a temporary basis. According to local sources “The Fiji Football Association will have to run at least three major soccer competitions without any sponsorship as Vodafone Fiji has suspended sponsorship until December this year and they will then review its decision. […] These competitions include the Vodafone Premier League, Vodafone Fiji FACT and Inkk Mobile BOG. Fiji FA’s CEO, Mohammed Yusuf has confirmed this adding they now will have to stand on their own feet and do as much as possible from their savings to keep football running. Vodafone Fiji had announced a $5.5 million sponsorship deal for five years with the Fiji FA last year“.
Also according FFA official “[…] companies can come forward and join Vodafone Fiji to sponsor their major competitions however they will not get into a deal with direct competitors of Vodafone Fiji”. Fiji FA is having many issues to reorganize their 2020 football season schedule and certainly this situation might get worse due the lack of funds cause of the absence of their major sponsor. Despite the case, it is expected the Fiji Football Premier League will continue to be called Vodafone Premier League for sponsorship reasons. The national league is set to restart after the COVID-19 break this weekend in the clash of Navua against Ba.
Star Mountain FC is back to training in order to get ready for 2019-20 Papua New Guinea National Soccer League resumption. The first session after COVID-19 pandemics took place at Ela Beach on Monday.
The session was ran by current team’s head coach Selan Elizah and did not count on all players – “Half of the team have resumed training today,” he said. Assistant Coach Percy Mataio was also absent in the training due to personal reasons.
Elizah (first from left to right) with the players after the training session.
Despite being in the eighth position, Star Mountain was having a good recovery in the league by winning Hekari United by 2-1 in the tenth matchweek. This result was very important to leave the last position in the table but Elizah knows that it is important to keep working without big expectations – “The expectations are not that high but we are just forecast to rebuild the team back to we’re we left,” he said.
In the third matchweek of football in the Lotto NRFL Premier in New Zealand, the Fiji international Kishan Sami helped his new club Manukau United to clinch their first victory of the season against Waitakere City by 3-1. Manukau United has many other Fijians in their squad, but Sami is being currently the only player who is being regular to the first team – the 20-year-old player featured in all matches of Manukau in the top-tier league of North Island in New Zealand.
The former Ba player recently joined the club from South Auckland is rapidly addapting to the team. Before losing to Forrest Hill Milford and helding Bay Olympic to a 1-1 draw in the past weekend, Manukau United managed to beat Waitakere City thanks to three first half goals from the Japanese Nobuaki Mochizuki, the Nigerian Sani Issa and the former Hamilton Wanderers and Tasman United striker Jama Boss.
Manukau United XI – Manukau United Media
Kishan Sami played 90 minutes of the match – being subbed in the injury time. Manukau now sits in the middle of the table with four points collected from three matches played – this is the first experience of the young talented Fijian in overseas football. Manukau is going to take on Western Springs at home in the next weekend and Sami is expected to once again start for the team that is coached by the former New Zealand National Team head coach Kevin Fallon.
Oceania Football Center 