Unprofessional to the core

Local Sports

UNPROFESSIONAL is how Fiji Football Association is being labelled by Jay Mcfadyn.

The father of the England based former Fiji U-20 footballer, Oliver Mcfadyn says he is miffed at the governing body for giving a false hope to his son in obtaining a Fijian passport to represent and critized the conditions at Ba Academy.

"You would think the FFA would do everything to get Oliver a passport, but they rode it, later advising that he had missed out on the qualification by a few months and subsequently the immigration had suspended his stay in the country," said Jay Mcfaydn.

Oliver, who represented the England schoolboys team was invited for a tryout with the U-20 Junior Bula Boys team in 2021.

The 18-year old at the time turned heads, and was named in the extended squad to prepare for the OFC U-19 Championship in Tahiti.

Oliver's passion for the sport and desire drove him to represent his roots, who rode what Jay termed as aweful camp conditions in Ba.

"Ba for all intent and purpose is a prison camp next to actual prison.Oliver spent a lot of time thousands of miles away from in poor conditions, eating poor food to what amounted to pretty basic training.

"Post training conditioning was pretty non existent, no muscle recovery ice baths or supplements."

Jay said when the players were ill, they were basically left to deal with it, and the far worse were only taken to the hospital otherwise it's the parents who provided the necessary recovery supplies.

And besides, the party like atmosphere, smoking and disrespect, is the striking hallmark of Fiji football.

Jay said he can't wrap his head around the fact that with huge Fifa funds, football is on a wane, poor understanding of the game, corruption and tactical ineptitude the sport is ruined in the country.

"Continue to believe you can create a world class team from a population the size of a small town (Not city) in the UK, with poor facilities from low standard local teams.

"The excuse of doing your best at world level isn't good enough, you have to excel."

He added that former player Mustafa Mohammed was the victim of in house politics.

"Great footballer, rated in all sense of the game but favourites to play over quality and know how of the game had him walk out on the team."

Jay said the top-down who seem to think they know football, the game and how to run an establishment is a grand illusion.