Soccer: Fiji floods disrupt O-League

Shop owners clean up whatever is left in Nadi. Photo / Supplied

The Fijian floods have thrown the last round of O-League into disarray with the Oceania Football Confederation due to meet today to try to resolve the problem which has left them without a winner of the competition's group A.

The last matches in groups A and B were to be played on Saturday but the game between Ba and Tahiti's AS Tefana was called off because Govind Park in Ba was under water.

Moves by Waitakere United to have their game against AS Mont-Dore postponed were eventually dismissed and Waitakere, under protest, played. They beat the New Caledonian champions 4-0 to go to the top of the group.

But their concern, justly, was by playing before the Ba v Tefana game, those teams would know what was needed to win the group and qualify for the O-League final and with it the chance of a million dollar pay-out at this year's Fifa Club World Cup.

In beating Mont-Dore, and they needed four second-half goals to do it, Waitakere ended any hope Ba had of winning the group thus giving the Fijians no incentive to beat Tefana who need all three points to take group A honours. It was planned to reschedule the match for Churchill Park in Lautoka yesterday but flooding there stopped that.

The meeting between Tefana and OFC officials will try to resolve the situation. There have been suggestions the game might be played at a neutral venue, such as New Zealand.

Waitakere, determined there should be something on the game as an incentive, have suggested worthwhile winner-takes-all prizemoney should be offered to make for a meaningful contest as they have been disadvantaged.

OFC are apparently looking at placing a Football for Life project around the match with any funds going back to Ba.

In Saturday's group B action, Auckland City's season-long unbeaten run ended in Vanuatu when they went down to Amicale 1-0. With the group already won, there was nothing on the game for either team.

In the other game, played in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea champions Hekari United beat Koloale 2-1 to finish second - two points behind Auckland City.

Elsewhere, the Football Ferns made certain they will join the New Zealand men at the London Olympics with a resounding 8-0 win over PNG in the first leg of their OFC Olympic women's qualifiers in Whangarei on Saturday. PNG face an impossible task in Wednesday's return leg in Port Moresby.

Locally, Team Wellington continued their late season charge with a comfortable 6-1 win over Waikato FC in the final of the inaugural White Ribbon Cup played by the six ASB Premiership teams not involved in the O-League.