Fiji Football Association started assisting the footballers affected by the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic with Food Ration distribution in Lautoka today.
President Mr. Rajesh Patel, during the press conference earlier today, announced the football governing body in the country will assist the affected footballers with food rations, keeping Fiji FA’s Social Responsibility duties as a priority in this challenging times.
Patel appreciated the work put in by the staff for the review of the annual calendar and revise the budget to identify possible savings which has now been directed to this course while the Fiji FA Board has approved the Finance Committee’s recommendation to set aside appropriate funding for this purpose.
“A survey was conducted with strict criteria to identify the footballers whose livelihood were affected because of zero football activities since late April.
“We will only assist those players who were fully committed and totally depended on football as their only income,” Patel mentioned.
The Vice President and Deputy Chairman of the Fiji FA Finance Committee Mr. Aiyaz Musa will spearhead the distribution in the Western division with assistance from Mrs Naziah Ali Krishna and Mr. Jitendra Kumar. The Southern division distributions will be headed by the four Board Members Mr. Ravin Swamy, Mr. Jitendra Reddy, Mr. Yogeshwar Singh and Ms. Susan Wise.
“All these distributions will be done under very strict Covid-19 safety protocols and we will be seeking Police assistance whilst carrying out this project,” Patel said.
Patel added that Fiji FA has partnered with one of its sponsors Punjas for this project.
Fiji FA will roll this out in phases where the 8 Digicel Premier League districts and the 6 Digicel Women Super League districts will be assisted this week.
This will be followed by all Viti Levu senior men’s and senior women’s teams next week after thorough verification is done.
“We will also be assisting the Vanua Levu senior men’s and women’s teams but with a totally different package.
“Competitions in Vanua Levu was not yet started when the second wave of this pandemic hit us in mid-April and as a result, we will be checking from last year’s documents to establish the fully committed footballers that will be assisted.
“We are also aware of the effects of the two tropical cyclones that hit Vanua Levu amongst the football communities and our two Vice Presidents in the North Mr. Edwin Chand and Mr. Girja Prasad will oversee the northern phase within next two to three weeks.”
