THE Fiji Football Association and the Fiji Rugby Union have reached an agreement that provided a solution to the issue of double booking of the HFC Bank Stadium in July.
Fiji FA had booked the stadium in November 2024 for the Oceania Football Confederation Women’s Nations Cup which is scheduled for July 5-19.
The FRU made the booking for the same venues a month later for the Scotland v FIJI Water Flying Fijians Test scheduled for July 12.
“When Fiji FA came in, they did their booking with the date and paid a certain amount based on the policy that we have. I think they both failed the policy that we have, and they are both talking on the paper, so we just remained silent and waited for them to talk.
“Now you happen to find out that they don’t have the policy with them, none of them fits the policy that we have so we wanted to give them time to talk,” Fiji Sports Council acting chief executive Gilbert Vakalalabure stated.
After a week of discussions and meetings, the two sporting organisations repped by Fiji FA chief executive Mohammed Yusuf and FRU general manager operations and development, Sale Sorovaki, finally reached an amicable decision.
“The OFC schedule remains the same and they will allow the Fiji v Scotland match to go ahead on Saturday, July 12 at 3.35pm.
“The football match is on July 11 at 4pm. Scotland will have a captain’s run at 10 am at the HFC main ground and they will move out by 11-11.30am.
“At 4pm is the Tonga v Solomon match, 7pm Fiji plays Vanuatu.
“So, the matches will finish at 9, we will quickly clear the ground by 9.30pm then the additional workforce from FRU, Fiji FA and Sports Councill will go to the ground to clear all the branding.
“Sports Council will then remark the ground for rugby markings, they’ll put in their brandings for the international match.
“6pm when the match finishes on July 12, we will move it again, remove all branding and marking and go in against with our OFC markings again.
“They have been allowed until Sunday 12 midday, so they have 18 hours to do that,” Yusuf added.
According to the Sports Council, there was an option of taking the Scotland v Fiji Test to another location but the HFC Bank Stadium in the only facility of international decision- a factor that weighed heavily on the decision.
“We can look at it from all angles but for us we must remain positive ad understand the importance of high performance. We are grateful for OFC for giving us space for the biggest event for Fiji Rugby this year,” Sorovaki said.
Yusuf and Sorovaki stressed that the decision was agreed by Oceania Football after their meeting via zoom yesterday morning.
