Ali frustrated with referee's calls

Disgruntled Ba Coach Imdad Ali says some of the decisions of the referee in their 4-3 loss to Labasa in the first semifinal of the 2022 Digicel Fiji FACT are questionable and the result would have been different if the match was controlled properly.

Speaking to FijiLive, Ali said he was not happy with the decisions of the referee and called on Fiji FA to look at the standard of refereeing.

“I would say that when we prepare a team, we prepare to come and win and all teams prepare for the same."

"But we don't want to lose at the expense of referees."

"Some of these referees don't know the decisions that they make."

"One of it was like during our game, the ball hit the referee. He should have stopped the game. Right, but he allowed the game and then when Saula Waqa scored why he did not stop play before he took the attempt and scored.

"I mean, these kind of decisions are wrong. You know, this kind of referees should never come in."

Ali added that the referee's decision could heavily affect the players and also pull the team morale down.

"And next thing that I want to say is don't get referees from the districts that are playing. This guy was from Labasa and we don't want to lose games like that."

"We work hard. We get a team. I've got a very young side. This is not the original Ba team that was there before, this team is a very young team."

"We want to bring up football. We don't want to drop down the football just because of these referees."

"So these kinds of things should not happen and I very strongly feel that Fiji football should look into this."

He further stated that he entered the pitch after the match to question the referee about his decisions and there was no intention to cause any harm.

"They said that they have sent the referee home and we are losing and going home?"

"We should have been three nil up in the first half. And I'm very disappointed.

"And when I want to go and ask the referee what happened and why was that decision made, the Police officers got in and stopped me."

"But I'm trying to ask why. Why did he do that? What was the problem? It previously we have seen and we saw that when there was a ball that hit the referee, there was a drop ball.

This referee allowed it."

"And then when the goal was scored then he said No, that's a free kick so that’s a wrong decision."

"These kinds of people will never meet me because they know me. They will never meet me."

"The  referees director should have come and told me that this is what has happened and we have sent the referee home. Well, where is the referee's director?"

"I even did not see him at the VIP tent. He was not there. I wanted to ask him why the referee made that decision. Well, he just guised me away," he explained.

Meanwhile, Referees Director Rakesh Varman when approached by FijiLive for a comment on the issue said he will respond later.

By Romeka Romena