Marked for Abdul Sahil
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alipate Qaraniqio and Ba agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market18 Jan 2027
The Kishan Sami talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Darold Kakasi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Darold Kakasi 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market2 Nov 2026
The Noah Cacace story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Noah Cacace signs something — a contract at Ba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Aiyush Kumar 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dave Qaraniqio and Ba agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Rahul Naresh gets picked when it counts
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 Rahul Naresh is on it.
Market28 Sep 2026
The Noah Cacace question follows Ba around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Noah Cacace’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Malakai Rere knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Malakai Rere trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Terms done: Raj Pillay is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nadroga waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ba is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 0 out at Ba
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ba say no — this time
The offer from Navua for Abdul Sahil was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Malakai Rere has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$3.0K on the table at Lautoka. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Ba asked and Rewa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Ba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raj Pillay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Lucas Abarca out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$29.0K settles it between the clubs for Noah Cacace
WaiBOP United have accepted the money. What Ba do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nadroga come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ba did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Ba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raj Pillay is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ba will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Patrick Joseph keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ba say nothing, which says plenty.