THE Fiji Football Association (Fiji FA) has once again reminded soccer districts of the deadlines that were set in place at the beginning of the 2012 season competition.
Fiji FA competitions manager Jainendra Sukhu said districts had to be mindful that the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) had also set a deadline that had to be met. His comments came after Suva soccer coach Gurjeet Singh expressed his disappointment at the fixtures for this weekends Fiji Sun/GP Batteries National Football League competition.
Singhs side is to face Nadi at Ratu Cakobau Park tomorrow and he had his request for their game to be postponed declined by Fiji FA. Sukhu emphasised that the first round of games for the National League must be completed by June 19. He said this was the date set by Fiji FA chief executive officer (CEO), Bob Kumar. The CEO has given the cut-off date, June 19, by which we must complete the first round of national league games, Sukhu said.
This is because we have to finalise the eight teams for the Battle of the Giants (BOG) tournament.
The top eight teams on the National League points table after the first round will feature in the BOG.
Twenty postponed National Football League games have to be played within the next three weeks after which the original scheduled games for the final weeks of round one competition will be played. Six postponed games will be played this weekend (today and tomorrow) and then we have two more weekends to play the remaining 14 postponed games. And then when round two starts on June 24, we will have to complete that too within the cut-off dates.
OFC has set a deadline of August for us to complete the National Football League competition so that we can begin the 2012/2013 National League competition in November.
This weekends NFL draws: Today: Govind Park, Ba 1:30pm - Ba-Labasa, 1:30pm Academy Grounds, Ba - Tavua-Savusavu; Tomorrow: Garvey Park, Tavua 1pm - Tavua- Labasa, Govind Park, Ba 2pm - Ba-Savusavu, Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori (Double Header) 2.00pm - Rewa-Lautoka, 3.45pm - Suva-Nadi.