Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Praveen Bala has called out Minister for Sports Jese Saukuru about the proposed transfer of municipal sporting facilities.

During yesterday’s Parliament sitting Bala said instead of proposing to let the Fiji Sports Council take over the municipal sporting facilities, Saukuru should understand its history.

He added FSC should look after its current facilities well. Some have been poorly maintained.

This includes the state of the HFC Stadium pitch. Last Saturday, rugby fans who watched the Fiji versus Scotland test match shared their concerns about the dry and brown ground. Many said it was simply ‘not up to international standard’.

SUNsports understands that hosting back to back tournaments was strictly not allowed with past FSC administration. Last week however, Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) women’s Nations Cup took place during the week. The last pool game between Fiji and Vanuatu concluded Friday night at 9pm. At 10pm, Fiji Rugby Union staff and volunteers came in to wash out the football markings to prepare the ground for the Saturday test match.

Concerned stakeholders said the pitch would normally be closed off for maintenance for weeks before an international match. However, the clash in booking resulted in the back to back hosting of the two sports.

Questions sent to FSC acting chief executive officer Gilbert Vakalalabure were not answered when this edition went to press last night.

Bala, a former Minister for Sports maintained that Saukuru and the FSC do not have the authority to acquire ratepayers property.

“They can’t even maintain one ground and they want basically all the facilities,” Bala said.

“These grounds should never get bad.”

“The point is all these pavilions and stadiums built by municipal council were efforts and energy of the ratepayers; there was no funding from Government,” Bala said.

“Some of the counselors and mayors gave their personal guarantee to bank to secure loans.”

Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj