FROM the white sandy beaches of Nukubalavu, Savusavu, to great cities and countries all around the world, former Fiji Football rep and renowned referee Finau Vulivuli has done it and seen it all.
From playing the sport at national and international level to officiating the game and teaching the health and finance sector, the Savusavu lass is a woman who wears many hats.
Vulivuli has also created history by being the only Fijian official to be called for duty as a referee to a FIFA World Cup tournament.
Looking back to where it all started, Vulivuli came from humble beginnings like many other families across Fiji and has worked her way up to where she is today.
She believes that her early involvement in football was what sparked her interest in the sport and she is grateful for the opportunity the sport has given her by taking her to different parts of the world.
“Sports was part of our life growing up. As a family, it was our social space over the weekends, we always had someone participating in some sport and the family would be out to cheer them on,” the 35-year-old mother shared.
Though Vulivuli was also considered the bookworm of the family, she always made time to get involved in sports.
Initially, I was introduced to the sport of football watching my brothers who were great footballers. Both William and Thomas represented Savusavu district. Thomas went on to represent Fiji for many years. He was only 17 when he was selected into the Fiji U23 side and progressed to represent the national team in many events.”
However, Vulivuli did not take football seriously until much later when she was a student at the University of the South Pacific in Laucala Bay.
“This was in 2002 while i was studying for my Diploma in Education when other female students like myself were approached by Fiji Football Association if they were interested in playing football.”
The FFA had planned to form a national women’s side to send to the 2003 Pacific Games but did not have any district teams to choose their players from.
Therefore it was decided that women be added to the Inter-district-competition that year.
“So when they approached us, I joined with a few friends of mine who also played a little bit of soccer throughout their childhood. It was more of a leisure activity, like a weekend away from school and all its stresses.
“The management of Nasinu thought that looking for players at a college facility would be a good idea because the students would be easy to teach and coach.”
Vulivuli was selected into the Nasinu side to their first ever IDC but admitted that even though she wasn’t given enough game time, she was able to make a few good impressions of her skills in the competition.
To her amazement, Vulivuli was named into the national squad by former national rep, goal keeper and coach Tagi Vonolagi.
“So we were selected to represent Fiji at the 2003 Pacific Games. Be reminded that majority of the players in the team had no experience in the game since football was always considered a male sport.”
Vulivuli first posting as a teacher was in Savusavu but still managed to travel with the team to Samoa that year.
This is where she started off her journey and she went on to become one of the most experienced referees in Fiji.
“I loved the sport, I had the fitness but I didn’t think I had the physicality like the rest of the players.”
Her fears, however, were unfounded, as she was a player who understood the game well.
From the rules and regulations of the sport to the roles and responsibilities of each player in different positions, she knew the game like at the back of her hand.
This is what made the young athletes distinct from the rest of her teammates.
Her early enthusiastic forays into football seemed to quieten down after the Pacific Games until she was posted to teach at Saint Bedes College in Savusavu in 2005.
“While I was teaching here, I was contacted by FFA talking about how they wanted to involve more women into football all around Fiji.”
At the time, there were no IDC district teams from outside Viti Levu.
That was where the FFA approached Vulivuli and asked her to form a team for the district of Savusavu since she had already experience in football.
“And since I’m all for women empowerment, I agreed to form a team from Savusavu.”
But this left her with the challenge of finding players to represent the newly formed district.
“That’s when the idea hit me, since I was a former teacher at Savusavu Secondary School and a current teacher at St Bedes, I would use my platform as a teacher to encourage students to join the team.”
As a teacher, Vulivuli held a respectable position in the community and found it easy to convince young women to step out of their comfort zone, put away the thought that football was a male sport and join the team.
“Football was considered a male sport in our area, probably all around Fiji and this was something I wanted to change.
I knew there were young women out there who may have the talent to excel in football but was scared or shy to play because of that stigma.”
And so the first Savusavu side to the IDC in 2005 was made up of high school students and Vulivuli as coach.
Though the side did not win any of their games, Vulivuli believed she had made a difference in the young women’s lives by getting them involved into something constructive.
“Surprisingly, the team received enormous support from the community and we even went on to become the team with the most funds and this said a lot about the support we received.”
One of Vulivuli’s proudest moments that year was when two players from her side were selected to represent the National Under-20 squad in the 2006 Pacific Games.
Later that year while preparing for the next IDC Competition, Vulivuli had contacted FFA requesting soccer boots for players in her side.
“As a former player, I knew that there were spare boots lying idle at the FFA that was sponsored by the British High Commission.”
Representatives at the FFA told her there would be an FFA training course held in Savusavu in a few days and they would be able to hand her the equipment over then.
“Little did I know this was a referee training course. But I thought to myself that I would just go to the course and get them to give me the equipment.”
Vulivuli attended the course with the St Bedes commerce teacher and former Arkansas football player, Shannon Boyett, who also helped her manage the new Savusavu side.
“At the end of the course, Shannon and I topped the test that was given to us.”
Because of their excellent grades, the duo was invited to the Battle of the Giants tournament that was held in Suva in 2006.
“Next thing we knew, we were undergoing training session led by one of the best referees at the time, Munaf Basha, as we were to officiate a few games at the BOG.”
As former football players, Vulivuli and Boyett sailed through the referee fitness and training sessions that were given to them by Basha.
“A few weeks into our training, I started to think of how refereeing could really be something I can pursue.”
After the 2006 BOG, Vulivuli decided to venture into the new field and over the next three years, things sky rocketed for the newbie who was only a coach of an inexperienced side a few months ago.
“So I taught from during the week days and did refereeing during the weekend. I would at times swap classes to suit my schedules but I was able to manage it both quite easily.”
She said this because attending football matches was something she enjoyed doing and because of this, she felt like she had never worked a day while on the field.
“I’ve always loved football. So when I was given the opportunity to direct a match, it didn’t feel like a was working since I always enjoyed it.”
But for the computer science teacher, her sole purpose of doing refereeing was to change the common misconception of football being a men’s sport.
“During that time, there were hardly any women wanting to play football for the fear of being judged and I wanted to change that.”
Vulivuli went from being introduced to the BOG in 2005 to officiating the Men’s semi-finals in 2007, a feat that would normally take more than five years to achieve.
She received her first FIFA Badge in January, 2008, before she was called a month later to direct a men’s tournament held in Portugal.
In 2008, she became the first Fiji match official to direct a World Cup tournament when she was called up to attend the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Throughout the next two years, she was heavily involved in OFC and Fiji FACT tournaments around the country.
“I’ve covered all the local finals in Fiji, regional qualifiers and many more international games around the world.”
She went on to attend six more World Cup tournaments with a record of officiating two World Cup tournaments in 2016. In 2012, she was a match official at the London Olympics.
“Having two World Cup tournaments in a year was a huge achievement for me, it was something that rarely ever happed and it just made me really proud.”
In 2016, she was initially pulled up to attend the Under-17 World Cup in Jordan before she was approach by FIFA requesting her to attend the Under-20 World Cup in Papua New Guinea.”
“I was like ‘Hold on, I’m on leave. I might lose my job if I don’t return to Fiji on time.’ But I was able to rescheduled my classes and attend that World Cup.”
After her last World Cup in 2016, Vulivuli felt that she had achieved everything there was to achieve in her field and wanted to give space for upcoming referees from the FFA.
“After that last World Cup, I felt like I had done it, there were no more boxes to tick. And I could see that there were many young talented referees coming up at the FFA and I wanted to leave space for them.”
After refereeing, she ventured into the health sector and became a health instructor with the Ministry of Health.
After a few years with the MOH, she venture into the finance world and secured a position at the Fiji Development Bank.
“But after I had my child, I had always wanted to step down from work and just stay at home a take care of him.
But I guess I was so involved into that I didn’t leave until the peak of the covid-19.”
Vulivuli shared that she started to realise the importance of being there for her child at the first five years and that’s when decided to step down from her position at FDB and become a full time mum.
“During that time, I was able to really think about what space I would want to get involved in next. Since I’ve been in sports and development sectors, I want combine the two and try a “Sports for Development” space.”
Vulivuli believes that through sports, Fiji could be able to fix and find solutions to major social issues that are affecting youths and young people in Fiji.
“Sports can be a platform where we can intimately converse with our youths and address certain issues.”
“So at the moment I am running a consultancy with Child’s Fund, in relation to sports for development.”
Vulivuli has also been involved with sports commentary over the past few months after completing a training program in July.
She and 10 other participants from different media firms and sporting organisations receive their certificates after completing two-week training with former ABC Sports Director and senior sports commentator, Peter Longman.
“Mr Longman is one of the most renowned sport commentators and to receive training from him is such a blessing.”
This training was conducted under the Women in News and Sports Program (WINS) under DFAT.
“We were given the opportunity commentate at a netball competition that being held by Oceania Football Confederation that month. This was not live but being recorded to see how much we’ve learnt after just two days training.
After completing her commentary on a particular game, Vulivuli received a surprise a day later when she received an email from the Oceania Football Federation saying they had heard a copy of her commentary and would like to offer her a position in their commentary team.
“The game was on a Saturday and on the next day, Sunday, I received an email from OFC saying that had offered me a position with their commentary team.”
But as she looks back at her journey, coming through different sectors of employment, she has learnt that in whatever space you are in- you must always strive to do your best.
“That’s one of the main lesson I’ve learnt over the years. In whatever spaces I was in, I always worked hard and tried to achieve my full potential.”
Vulivuli stills hopes to get involved once more with Fiji Football but at the moment her main priority is spending time with her four-year-old son.
“With a lot of time on my hands, I’ve been trying to think of the new and different spaces I can get myself involved in. But yes, I’ll be working with FFA in the future.”
