The teams set to compete at Luganville venue in Vanuatu in the Group B of the OFC Champions League 2020 already arrived in the country and had their first training sessions heading for the start of the competition in the weekend. Lae City from Papua New Guinea, Henderson Eels from Solomon Islands and Lautoka from Fiji are already in Santo preparing for the most important club football tournament of Oceania.
Competition is set to start this 15th February, 2020 in Soccer City Stadium, Luganville.
Recently, Oceania Football Center released that Malampa Revivors is having issues to register the Ni-Vanuatu international Jacky Ruben alongside Vanuatu Football Federation in order to allow the player to represent the Luganville-based club in the 2020 OFC Champions League.
After investigation with authorities of football in the region, Oceania Football Center presents more details about the case and a possible solution for Malampa Revivors to have the clearance to use Ruben.
According to FIFA regulation, players registered at one association may only be registered at a new association once the latter has received an International Transfer Certificate (hereinafter: ITC) from the former association. Based on this information, Malampa Revivors needs the ITC from the last team Jacky Ruben played for, Suva FA from Fiji.
If the ITC of the player was already with the club from Luganville, there would not be any problems to register the midfielder as Malampa Revivors player in Vanuatu FA; but this is not surely the case. But, still inside this rule, here comes a possible way out for Malampa Revivors: under FIFA regulation the player is cleared to play for a new team if the request of its ITC is lodged in TMS (Transfer Matching System) after 15 days of the request.
Basically, if the ITC was not issued by his former team – in this case, Suva FA from Fiji – Malampa Revivors can register the player alongside VFF after 15 days of the request. The team needs to inform FIFA about the situation, then they will be cleared to make the proper registration.
But, did Malampa Revivors requested in TMS the ITC of Jacky Ruben? The answer is yes. According to reliable sources, the request was made in January, so it means that is much probrable that the appeal was made 15 days ago.
Another issue for Malampa Revivors is that the Vanuatu transfer window is set to finish this 12th February, so the club directors will have very little time to complete Jacky’s process in order to count on him for OFC Champions League.
The Papua New Guinean powerhouse Hekari United is ready for their biggest challenge of the year. The club released their 23-players list for the upcoming OFC Champions League, where they will play the group stage at home, in Port Moresby.
The biggest stars of the team as Koriak Upaiga and David Muta are included in the list, as well the Brazilian duo Vinicius Reis and Erick Joe – signed specially to feature in the tournament.
You can check the full squad of Hekari United by clicking here.
Tongan football was always away from the worldwide scenario of international football; always the fans knew little about the competitions in the country and its national development. In the past years, there are efforts coming from Polynesia to make the access to information easier – something that could link Tonga and the rest of ‘bottom four OFC ranked nations’ to the rest of the football world.
Since the modern format of the two most important competitions in Oceania was implanted – OFC Champions League and OFC Nations Cup – Tonga was not represented in its group stage. The biggest winners of their local league Lotoha’apai United and Veitongo took part in the recent editions of the OFC Champions League – Preliminary Stage, but were unable to qualify for the group stage. Tonga national team was also unable to take part in the group stage of any of the recent editions of the OFC Nations Cup, the result is similar at the youth stages being the only big achievement recently the spot earned in the group stage of the OFC U19 Championship back in 2018 after winning the preliminary round.
Although the bad records, Tongans have something to hold with: Veitongo, in the latest edition of the preliminary stage of the OFC Champions League, shown a better football than any of the recent Tongan representatives in the competition.
Veitongo was unable to hold Lupe o le Soaga from Samoa in their first game, losing by 2-0. Despite their bad first half, they improved a lot in the final 45 minutes of the clash. Their strike force could create some difficulties to the Samoan defense, even earning a penalty kick that was wasted by Vai Lutu, unfortunately for the Tongans.
They went for the final clash against Tupapa Maraerenga needing a win to celebrate a first ever spot for a Tongan side in the modern era of the OFC Champions League. Their main player Hemaloto Polovili scored early to put his side upfront, but it did not take long for the Cook Islands side to find an equalizer. The same Polovili put his team in front again with one world-class free kick finish, making the dream possible for the coached by Mark Uhatahi.
The story was the same in the second half: Veitongo proved to be more dangerous than Tupapa Maraerenga upfront, but still the defensive system of the Tongan side was their biggest problem. The Cook Islanders grabbed another goal early in the second – the result they needed to go ahead – what forced Veitongo to go to attack to have its needed goal.
The same Hemaloto Polovili had a golden chance to find his hattrick in the match, but he was denied by the opposition keeper. The final result was not what Veitongo wanted, but surely they can be proud of their big effort. The lesson from this competition is surely to have a better organised defensive system – to avoid the mistakes they had against Lupe and Tupapa.
The results are certainly better: Lotoha’apai United in the 2019 edition of the tournament could grab a win against Pago Youth from American Samoa, but lost by 4-1 against Tupapa Maraerenga and suffered a harsh defeat against Kiwi from Samoa by 9-1. Veitongo, in his last appearance in the tournament in 2018, just draw against the American Samoans of Pago Youth and lost 9-2 for the same Tupapa Maraerenga and 6-0 for Lupe o le Soaga. The evolution seems clear.
The quality of the still young Hemaloto Polovili need to be developed to serve as example for the younger generations to have the desire to win. The stepping stone for Tongan football can be the good performance of Veitongo – but they still have a long way to go – to show they can improve on our loved football.
Oceania Football Center recently reported that Suva’s midfielder Jacky Ruben would be going to play for Malampa Revivors in 2020 OFC Champions League. We interviewed him about his expectations for the tournament and he was very excited for playing an international competition at his country.
However things have changed and it is being reported by local media that Suva (Fiji) failed to address Malampa Revivors’ transfer request on time so Oceania Football Confederation could not accept the transfer. The Luganville-based club is set to get in touch with Fiji FA in order to get the proper documents to have the OFC’s clearance for Ruben, but the team does not have much time to address the issue.
See more:
Updates about Jacky Ruben transfer case.
Revivors will debut in the continental tournament on Saturday against Lautoka from Fiji. Oceania Football Center keeps investigating the case in order to bring the most accurate information to our followers.
It is not new that football has spreaded worldwide, being played in almost every single country in the world. This fact culminates in lots of interesting moves and transfers, being one of the circumstances that make football players have dual citizenship – players eligible to represent more than one country internationally. According to FIFA rules, a person who does not have roots in the country that is currently living needs to be living there for at least five years in a row to represent its national team. Despite the FIFA rules, each country has its own processes for obtaining citizenship, what may take even more than five years to allow a player from another country to play for his new national team.
Uncountable examples can be mentioned, being one of the most famous worldwide the Brazilian/Spanish striker Diego Costa who decided to represent Spain internationally after playing one friendly match for his homenation Brazil. Costa spent more than five years playing in Spain and, as mentioned according to FIFA rules, despite of not having any Spanish roots the player was eligible to play for Spain, what he did in the past two FIFA World Cups.
Costa’s case is not one of a kind, many others happened in the modern football world, but it is not certainly the case of Harley Gepp, a 26-year-old forward currently playing in Australian NPL side White City FC. Gepp explains himself his citizenship situation: “I was born in Papua New Guinea. My mother is Papuan and my father is Australian. I was born in Goroka, but I grew up in Wabag, Enga Province – my family is Engan“.
Gepp is already in the process to obtain his Papua New Guinean citizenship and declares himself available to be called up for the Kapuls: “I have not been contacted yet by PNGFA. I am available for the national team, however I am in the process of organising my passport for PNG at the moment“, explains Gepp.
The player was already part of the 2011 Australian School Boys squad and achieved some success in his NPL career so far: “I was part o Cumberland United’s promotion to Division 1 NPL South Australia in 2016. I scored 13 goals that season including the winner in the grand final“, mentions Gepp.
The player presents himself to the intrigued Papua New Guinean football fans as “a goal scoring winger. I can play anywhere along the front or wings. I am comfortable with both feet which allows me to play on both sides. I like to isolate my full back and go one on one“, says the player.
Gepp is currently working on his PNG passport and expects to get everything done before OFC Nations Cup beginning in June – a competition that he expects to have a chance to play. He continues giving his best in Australia – the NPL season is on the verge to start – to impress the PNGFA to give him the opportunity to represent the country of his mother.
The current Vodafone Premier League runners-up that is leading the present season of the national league presented to their fans the squad travelling to Luganville, Vanuatu to represent Lautoka in the OFC Champions League 2020. The team will count with four foreigners for the season, including their latests signings as the defender Arami Manumanubai.
Lautoka will have some important names of Fijian football in their squad, as the midfielder Shazil Ali and the forward Dave Radrigai. Recently, the club announced the signing of two players from New Zealand to reinforce their squad.
You can check the full squad of Lautoka by clicking here.
Galaxy FC squad is already flying to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea to face Hekari United, Eastern Suburbs and Hienghène Sport for the Group A of the OFC Champions League 2020. Before the departure, the current Vanuatu national team coach Etienne Mermer gave an emotional speech to the players.
The assistant coach of the team Moise Poida recently stated in his social media about the words of the Ni-Vanuatu football legend to his team. Mermer talked about togetherness and learn from mistakes to improve by game by game and give an historical spot for Vanuatu in the knock-out stage of the next edition of the OFC Champions League.
Lautoka reinforced their squad for the upcoming OFC Champions League with two New Zealand-based players. There were already some rumours regarding the former Waitakere United goalkeeper Liam Anderson that were confirmed by local media.
The team had two foreign players to add to its squad for OFC Champions League: the first Anderson and the second the defender also from New Zealand Jack Caunter. Caunter that had experience in teams as Waitakere United and Southern United, most recently played for Waitakere City in New Zealand winter leagues; the player is the last signing of Lautoka for the regional competition.
Lautoka will also have the Ni-Vanuatu internationals Jason Thomas and Alex Saniel in their squad. The team will face Malampa Revivors from Vanuatu, Lae City from Papua New Guinea and Henderson Eels from Solomon Islands in the Group B of the tournament held in Luganville, Vanuatu.
The tall central defender Diego Máximo has plenty of experience to help the newcomers Galaxy FC in the OFC Champions League. The Brazilian defender talked to Vanuatu Sport and he said he is ready to help the team coached by Batram Suri and Moise Poida to qualify for the knock-out round of the 2020 OFC Champions League.
Diego said to the local source this will be his fourth appearece in OFC Champions League: “This is going to be my fourth OCL and I am very happy to play my football in Oceania especially in Vanuatu. I played for Amicale of Vanuatu, Rewa FC of Fiji, Erakor Golden Star FC of Vanuatu and now Galaxy FC also of Vanuatu and I want to help Galaxy to qualify to the second round of CL“, said Diego.
The Brazilian is still to play a decisive match of OFC Champions League and he expects 2020 will be the year of his success and of his club. In 2019, the Brazilian partned up with Jason Thomas in the Erakor Golden Star defense; the team needed to draw against Team Wellington in the final matchday in the group stage to proceed to the knock-out round, but suffered three goals in the second half that did not allow the Ni-Vanuatu side of Diego to move ahead.
Galaxy and Diego will take on Hekari United, Hienghène Sport and Eastern Suburbs in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in the Group A of this edition of OFC Champions League.
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
