The Fiji Football Association strongly condemns any form of baseless remarks, disrespectful or unprofessional behavior, and are committed to fostering a culture of mutual respect and cooperation.

Fiji FA is responding to Tailevu Naitasiri coach Tagi Vonolagi’s comments after his side lost to Labasa 5-2 in their last Digicel Fiji FACT pool match yesterday.

Vonolagi made allegations that four Labasa players’ double yellow cards were not recorded from the first two matches and they were supposed to miss the third match.

Vonolagi in the interview said it was Akeimi Ralulu, Sekove Naivakananumi and two other players.

However, as per the official match report, four Labasa players Akeimi Ralulu, Ilaisa Vulimainavuso, Sitiveni Rakai and Netani Suluka received a yellow card each in the first match against Rewa.

In the second game against Nadi, Ilisoni Lolaivau received a yellow card while Lekima Gonerau got two before copping a red card in the 71st minute.

A Fiji FA statement says all Labasa players were eligible for its final group match against Tailevu Naitasiri except Gonerau who didn’t play because of his two-match suspension.

The Fiji FA is committed to taking swift and decisive action to address this issue and prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

Fiji Football has been allocating a fifth official who does the entry on its online competition administration system, COMET, with the information from the fourth official.

This is then checked over by the match referee who signs it off and approves on COMET.

The sport’s governing body is taking the matter very seriously and have initiated a thorough investigation to gather all the facts and circumstances surrounding this allegation.

The Match Assessor’s reports have also been thoroughly looked into by the Fiji FA Competitions Department and there is no such occurrence as alleged.

Fiji FA is just waiting for the video footage to fully close its internal investigation.

Meanwhile, the Fiji FACT semi-finals will be held on Saturday at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva with Lautoka facing Labasa at 2pm followed by the Rewa and Ba game at 4.30pm.

The final will kick off at 3pm on Sunday and you can catch the live commentaries of all games on Mirchi FM.