Marked for Christopher Lal
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kitione Baleloa damages knee ligaments — 97 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nadi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tailevu Naitasiri is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
Lautoka come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tailevu Naitasiri did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tailevu Naitasiri have done the hard part with Lautoka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abhishek Deo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Evander Nasova and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market11 Jan 2027
Kirtesh Prasad is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tailevu Naitasiri has been clear about where Kirtesh Prasad stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Asaeli Tunidau has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tailevu Naitasiri 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
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kitione Baleloa
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tailevu Naitasiri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tailevu Naitasiri have done the hard part with Lautoka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Shivneet Sami again, and this time the name on the line is Suva. Tailevu Naitasiri are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and France Catarogo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Evander Nasova 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 3‑3 win over Rewa, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
What a way to start for Christopher Lal — 8.16
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 8.16 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tailevu Naitasiri people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tailevu Naitasiri can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Nadroga for Simione Begg 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Tailevu Naitasiri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abhishek Deo 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“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 Tailevu Naitasiri, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
France Catarogo 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rusiate Jale has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christopher Lal has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jale Qaraniqio has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.