“They Couldn’t Win and Didn’t Want to Lose”: The 1982 Inter-District Championship Final (Fiji Soccer)

Abstract

In this article, we review one iconic match in Fiji soccer history, the 1982 Inter-District Championship Final, when bad light stopped play after ten kicks each in the penalty shootout with penalty goals tied at 6–6. In interviews with ex-administrators and players from the match, we learn that Ba reneged upon a “gentlemen’s agreement,” between the two team presidents, not to turn up for any replay match scheduled for outside of Nadi, the original venue. Ba turned up at the replay venue and claimed the trophy much to the disgust of Nadi supporters and officials. Because the Indo-Fijian community “controls” coaching and administrative positions in soccer, it is able to fashion and refashion how Indigenous Fijian men’s bodies are presented and administered within the sport. Significantly, race and class combine to make it difficult for Indigenous ex-players to move into coaching and administrative positions in soccer postretirement.