The Suva soccer team said that its first appearance in the Fiji Airways OFC Champions League has not been good, not only because they lost two of their matches but also because they were not seeded correctly for the tournament.
President, Mahendra Prasad said as the 2014 National soccer league winner, they should have been the number one seed from Fiji and Ba should have been seeded number two as Ba finished as runners up.
Prasad claims the Fiji Football Association sent the wrong seeding to the Oceania Football Confederation last year which resulted in Suva being drawn in a tough group which has powerful teams like Auckland City and Amicale FC.
Auckland city finished third in last year’s FIFA Club World Cup while Amicale FC played last year’s OFC Champions League final.
Fiji FA’s CEO, Bob Kumar confirms the Fiji FA Board seeded Ba as number one team because they had played in previous OFC Champions League tournaments. However, he says they were advised later by the OFC that the National soccer league winner of the country should be the number one seed.
Kumar said that they tried to change the seeding but it was too late.
He said that they are now aware of how the seeding operates and will apply it in the future.
Meanwhile, Suva will play its last match against Western United at 4.30pm this Saturday at the ANZ stadium. In another match, Ba will play AS Pirae at 7pm at Govind Park and you can catch the live commentary on our sister station, Radio Sargam.
