The annual tournament will continue over the weekend of 21-23 June at Prince Charles Park in Nadi with the final being held at 3pm on Sunday, 23 June.
Eight sides are set to fight it out for the title this year with Suva, Labasa, Nadroga and Ba being drawn in Group 1 and Nadi, Navua, Lautoka and Rewa in Group 2.
Fiji FA president Rajesh Patel says all the teams have begun their preparations for the event and will be looking to deliver top quality football to their fans.
“The fixtures are already out and this will help the players and team officials to prepare well and come up with the strategies to counter their opponents,” Patel says.
“The first round will be played at the newly renovated ANZ Stadium in Suva and we are looking forward to it being another successful tournament this year.”
One side that has been working hard in an effort to claim glory at this month’s tournament is Lautoka, with coach Ravinesh Kumar saying their recent 4-1 victory over Rewa in the Fiji National Football League was the benchmark for his side.
“We have more things to work on and we will do much better in the match against Rewa in the Fiji FACT,” he says.
Lautoka last won the tournament in 2002 and association president Shalendra Prasad says he believes this is the year his side will bring the title back to the Sugar City.
“We are very desperate to win the Vodafone Fiji FACT and the road to the final will be very hard as we are playing 90 minute matches day in and day out which can be a huge factor for any team. All the teams are preparing, and so is Lautoka,” Prasad says.
“We are going for the win so our preparations need to go well. The participating teams have had ample time to prepare and there shouldn’t be any excuse for not preparing well. We last won in 2002 and since then we have qualified for the semi-finals but couldn’t go one step closer to winning the title but this year we have a good coach guiding us and he is definitely planning to end our winless streak.”
The draw for the Fiji FACT tournament can be found here.
For more on Fiji football go to www.fijifootball.com.fj

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