Burnley’s head coach Sean Dyche confirmed that New Zealand international Chris Wood is not going to play against Manchester City on Monday. The 28-year-old striker has been hampered by an Achilles problem since returning to training after lockdown.
According to Dyche, Wood is not fit enough and he is not going to travel to Manchester to face The Citizens on Etihad Stadium.
Wood is Burnley’s top scorer in 2019-20 Premier League season with eleven goals scored in 26 matches.
Currently playing for Lower Hutt City AFC in New Zealand winter football season Kris Naicker is one of the most talented players from Wellington Phoenix Academy. The 17-year-old defender had some opportunities to play for Wellington Phoenix Reserves in 2019-20 ISPS Handa Premiership.
Born in New Zealand, Naicker represented his homeland at FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil last year. He was in the starting eleven in all three matches played by New Zealand in the tournament and he is probably going to represent the country in the U-20 tournaments as well.
As his surname can not hide, Naicker has Fijian heritage. He is one of thousands of people born in New Zealand with Fijian ancestry which means that he has the possibility to represent Fiji internationally if he wants to but the chance of that happening is almost nil.
Current winter football season will be such an important one for him to show his talent. A good level of performance and hard work can put him in a higher position at Wellington Phoenix for 2020-21 ISPS Handa Permiership season.
He is definitely a good player from this amazing generation of young players from New Zealand. However if he does not have an opportunity to represent the All Whites at senior level, he still has the possibility of representing Fiji.
Bad news for Fijian football. After being announced that Battle of the Giants, FIJI Fact and Inter-District Championship may not be held this year, Fiji Football Association (FFA) Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Yusuf revealed that changes will be made in accordance with government decisions on easing COVID-19 restrictions on contact sports.
The 2020 Vodafone Premier League season was initially scheduled to resume on July 1st but its resumption is likely to be delayed in one or two weeks.
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Rewa FC is leading the current Vodafone Premier League edition with twelve points in five matches. You can check the league standings and top scorers by clicking here.
Leroy Jennings has a quite interesting story as a footballer. Born in Australia in 1998, the forward had the opportunity to join Los Angeles Galaxy from United States when he was just 13 years old after impressing former England National Team player David Bechkam.
His moment of glory happened when he tackled David Beckham’s son Brooklyn – ”I tackled him [Brooklyn Beckham], I got the ball and had to play on […] It was two seconds of glory. After the game, the director of the youth academy asked David Beckham who were the stand-outs and he replied with me,” told Leroy to Port News. After a successful trial he moved to Los Angeles and spent one year in Galaxy’s academy.
He returned to Australia in 2013 and spent some time playing for Bonnyrigg White Eagles youth teams before having another opportunity abroad. Jennings joined Wrexham United from Wales and spent two years in Europe – “It was not easy living in a new country, playing a different style of football with new teammates […] Even though I became a regular starter for the team in my second year it was still a constant expectation to perform at your very best and then try to break into the first-team,” he revealed to FTBL.
Older and more experienced, Jennings went back to Australia in 2016 to play for Newcastle Jets youth team. In the same year he was called-up to represent Fiji in OFC U-20 Championship. He scored one goal in three matches and since then he has never again represented Fiji internationally.
Jennings grew up and became a regular starter in National Premier League (NPL) teams in Australia at senior level. He played for Sutherland Sharks in 2018 and now he is currently playing for Blacktown City FC. Both teams play the first tier of New South Wales league in NPL.
Leroy has never played for Fiji National Team at senior level. It is not known if it is because he did not want to or if Fiji Football Association did not contact him anymore. The 22-year-old forward surely has the goods to be part of the National Team if he wants to.
Fiji Football Association (FFA) has recently released the calendar of 2020 Vodafone Senior League – the second tier of Fijian football. It was expected that twelve teams would play the tournament, but it seems that Lami FC will not play.
Lami finished 2019 Vodafone Senior League in the second position and they should be one of the top teams in the second tier this season but the team does not appear in the next Senior League’s table. FFA have not published anything about this issue yet.
Many players from Lami left the club and joined Navua including powerful forward Taniela Rakariva. The next Vodafone Senior League season is going to count on eleven teams – five in Viti Levu Zone and six in Vanua Levu Zone. You can check the schedule by clicking here.
It seems that Roy Krishna is not returning to Wellington Phoenix. His agent confirmed to Fiji Village that the 32-year-old forward will not rejoin his former club.
After being speculated in Europe, Krishna is likely to keep playing in India. According to reliable sources, Mumbai City FC and East Bengal FC are trying to sign with him as ATK want to renew his contract.
Krishna was one of the best players in 2019-20 Indian Super League. He helped ATK to clinch the national title by scoring 15 goals in 21 matches.
Jared Clark is a 22-year-old footballer born in Australia whose mother is from Vanuatu. Currently playing for Croydon Kings in his home country, Clark started the process to get the Ni-Vanuatu citizenship in January in order to become eligible to represent his mother’s country internationally.
He received full support from Vanuatu Football Federation (VFF) since the process started. He was even in the 54-men list released by VFF as Vanuatu National Team provisional squad for 2020 OFC Nations Cup.
According to Clark, the process is almost done – “I believe the last step is going to Vanuatu for the ceremony. With the COVID-19 traveling restrictions it is hard to see when that will be,” he explained – “once the ceremony has been done then it will be official and certified that I am a Ni-Vanuatu citizen,” he added.
His naturalization process was speeded up in order to make him available to represent Vanuatu in 2020 OFC Nations Cup. However the competition was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemics – “I was very keen on playing the OFC Nations Cup but COVID-19 has messed everything up,“ he revealed.
Clark is not going to be the first player born in Australia to represent Vanuatu internationally. Hume City’s midfielder Mitch Cooper faced the same process recently. He made his debut for Vanuatu National Team in 2019 Pacific Games.
Fiji Football Association (FFA) Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Yusuf revealed that cancelling the 2020 editions of Battle of the Giants, Inter-District Championship and Fiji FACT is a real possibility.
FFA recently announced the venues of these three tournaments and revealed that 2020 Fiji FACT would be contested by only six teams. The latest news about Fiji FACT left Fijian football fans angry as most people do not agree with only six teams playing the tournament.
Yusuf pointed that running these tournaments in 2020 would be too expensive for FFA and the districts because big crowds are not allowed in Fiji at the moment. However 2020 Vodafone Premier League resumption is confirmed.
These three tournaments are very important for Fijian football and their cancellation could be a hard blow for football fans and players in the country.
The new season of the Northern Regional Football League is about to kick off. After many doubts during the football break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, football is definitely back in New Zealand. The clubs had two weeks to prepare for the leagues – many friendly matches were played to get ready for the new season of New Zealand’s most important regional football league.
As the competition begins, many Pacific Islanders have a chance to shine in the new season; the clubs of NRFL in their four division have many players from the Pacific Islands, making it path for football development for players coming from these countries.
In the top-league of the Northern Region Football League, the Lotto NRFL Premier League, we can mention various football stars from Oceania: Manukau United will count on the Fijian international Kishan Sami, Hamilton Wanderers will have the Papua New Guinean star Tommy Semmy and the experienced Solomon Islands football legend Henry Fa’arodo, Central United will count on Ni-Vanuatu central defender Brian Kaltak and the Fijian Shuiab Khan. Many other Pacific Islanders will play their trade in NRFL season this year – Manukau United is one club with many Pacific Islanders, counting on a total of six Fijians in their first and reserve squads. Manukau will also have the Samoan international George Konusi and the Maro Bonsu-Maro who represented Cook Islands at youth international level.
The second-tier of football in the regional league will also have plenty of Pacific Islanders, some as the former U20 Fijian international Divikesh Deo and the new Ellerslie signings from Cook Islands Lee Harmon and Avi Enoka. The best-known player from Pacific Islands of NRFL Division 2 – the third-tier of the regional league – is arguably the youth Solomon Islands’ international Charles Mani, now a player of Hibiscus Coast.
North Shore United is the current champions of the Lotto NRFL Premier League, Forrest Hill Milford won the Division 1 and got promoted to the top-tier league as Albany United was crowned champions of Division 2 also getting promotion to the next league.
Solomon Islands are very close to have a women’s football league. Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) president William Lai revealed that a proposed league is set to begin in July once football tournaments are cleared to resume in the country.
According to Lai, the league must consist of eight to ten teams. The women’s league will probably follow Telekom S-League’s pattern but it is not decided yet. The president of SIFF will also be the chairman of women’s football committee. A board will be created to run the competition and find sponsors for the participating clubs as well.
It is a big step for women’s football development in Solomon Islands. The country is very a traditional one when it comes to men’s football, futsal and beach soccer in Oceania but female squads usually struggle in the continental tournaments.
Oceania Football Center