Marked for Ryan Naresh
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Aug 2028
Penisoni Tirau damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad7 Aug 2028
47 days out for Abdul Sahil after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 Aug 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hayyaan Khan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market7 Aug 2028
Ryan Naresh hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ba can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Hayyaan Khan says Ba went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Ba
Lucas Abarca was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
A loan move for Daniel Duvnjak is in the works
Ba have made the call to Rewa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Faazil Ali makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Aug 2028
Labasa are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ba will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match14 Jun 2028
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Hayyaan Khan obliged against Labasa. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Ba.
Market19 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match19 Jun 2028
Ba refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market19 Jun 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Jun 2028
Ba make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ba have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Ba
Lucas Abarca and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rewa have kept their man, and Ba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match17 Jun 2028
Ba find a way past Navua
Navua made Ba work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
Ba supporters have found a favourite in Hayyaan Khan
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Hayyaan Khan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
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Player ratings
Kalaveti Sivoi ran the middle of the pitch — 7.67
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Looking ahead
The big one: Nadi come into view
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Player ratings
Darold Kakasi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Ba
Lucas Abarca was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Jovan Nikolić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Raj Pillay falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A quiet fortnight at Ba
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
The afternoon belonged to Kishan Sami
A mark of 7.42, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Etonia Dogalau has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ba will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Napolioni Kaumaitotoya after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Faazil Ali named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Faazil Ali has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
In brief
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Ba
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Match
Ba and Rewa cancel each other out
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Market
The Lucas Abarca talk will not go away
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Nov 2027
Kalaveti Sivoi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Ba
Patrick Joseph and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
When it matters, Nabil Begg plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
A promise honoured for Ryan Naresh
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ba told Ryan Naresh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market15 Nov 2027
The name of Etonia Dogalau keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ba say nothing, which says plenty.
Market15 Nov 2027
Ba have made Lucas Abarca available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
The goals keep arriving from Hayyaan Khan’s exile
3 goals in 13 games at Navua — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ba updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Amani Prasad asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Questions about Abdul Sahil on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Kalaveti Sivoi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kalaveti Sivoi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Ba
Patrick Joseph and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Abarca, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Nabil Begg has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ba will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market20 Sep 2027
The name of Etonia Dogalau keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ba say nothing, which says plenty.
Market20 Sep 2027
The shop window has Lucas Abarca in it
Ba have let the market know Lucas Abarca can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
13 appearances at Navua and the goals keep coming. Ba are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Roy Verevou is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Peceli Sukabula plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Jul 2027
Full time on the season at Ba
Position 7 on 21 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nasinu waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ba is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market12 Jul 2027
Aiyush Kumar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Lucas Abarca in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Jul 2027
Ba come up short against Labasa
Labasa left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Napolioni Kaumaitotoya left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Etonia Dogalau is on it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Malakai Rere beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.