Suva vs Savusavu clash called off

The National Football League fixture between Suva and Savusavu scheduled for 7pm tonight was delayed for two hours and later called off as there was power outage at Nausori's Ratu Cakobau Park.

The teams and match officials got to the venue on time but a power line to the Park  had fallen to ground resulting in an outage.

The teams and supporters were told to wait as FEA and Nausori Town Council workers tried to fix the situation but the process last for more than two hours forcing Savusavu officials to request Fiji FA to call off the fixture as they had travelled all day to get to Viti Levu and their players were tired of waiting and needed to eat and rest.

National League Board Secretary Jainendra Sukhu announced the decision to call off after consulting his board members and said the new venue and time will be announced soon but added the Savusavu will have to come and play the fixture on its own expense.

Savusavu interim president Gopendra Narayan said the long travelling took its toll on his players and the delay in kick off was affecting the players as they had not even eaten.

"My players could not wait and if look at the time, its well after 9pm and it will just not be fair for me to force my boys to play as they are tired and hungry. We came for the 7pm kickoff and the long wait has really affected us."

"We will travel to West straight from here and will wait for our next game on Sunday."

Meanwhile, Suva boss Mahen Prasad was upset with the decision and said his players had worked hard and were looking forward to the game.

"We had prepared well and all our efforts are now spoiled by the call off. We are trying to end our matches and prepare for BOG but such postponements will not help districts. We were also taking this match as a buildup to our next match against Navua on Sunday," said Prasad.

Savusavu plays Lautoka at Churchill Park at 3pm on Sunday while Suva will play Navua at Ratu Cakobau Park on the same day but at 6pm.

FijiLive