Labasa F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Labasa F.C.


fullname = Labasa F.C.
nickname = Babasiga Lions,
founded = 1942
ground = Subrail Park
Labasa, Fiji
capacity = 10,000
president = Abinesh Kumar
coach = Bal Sanju Reddy and Anand Sami
league = National Football League (Fiji)
season = 2008
position = 1st
pattern_la1=_whiteshoulders|pattern_b1=_whitestripes|pattern_ra1=_whiteshoulders
leftarm1=ff0000|body1=ff0000|rightarm1=ff0000|shorts1=ff0000|socks1=ff0000|

Labasa F.A. is a Fijian football team playing in the first division (premier/super premier) of the Fiji Football Association competitions. It is based in Labasa, which is the largest town on the second largest island, Vanua Levu, in the Fiji group. Their home stadium is Subrail Park. Their uniform includes red and white striped shirt, red shorts and red socks.Labasa football team (now more commonly known as Babasiga Lions), is probably the best one-touch football team in Fiji. The Lions play most technical and entertaining soccer in Fiji.Despiet that they have not won most of the local competitions. Due to their entertaining pattern of soccer, they have been fan favourites in Fiji.Geographically isolated from the rest of the premier division teams in Fiji, Lions have to usually travel to other districts for competitions.Labasa has produced some of the most skilful soccer players in Fiji. Arguably, the most prolific soccer player in the nations soccer history was Anand Sami. He played for Lions and the national team during his soccer career. He captained both Labasa and Fiji teams. He was the most inspirational soccer player and captain during his time. The fans used to be dazzled by his skills. He would create many excellent scoring opportunities, but Lions, during his time, had problems in the strike force. Hence, most of those opportunities went begging, and as a result, Lions did not win many competitons. Whenever Anand played, he was strongly marked by the opponents, and thus frequently suffered from injuries. Although, he could not win Interdistrict soccer tournament for Lions as a player, he gave that glory to the district in 1992 ( for the first time) as a coach. Recent news on the Babasiga Lions can be accessed from: http://babasigalions.wordpress.com/, a fan clubsite.

History

A local football competition was held in Labasa from 1938. The competition included some ethnic Fijian Clubs. Labasa did not join the National Association when it was formed, in 1938, due to the distance of Labasa from the main island of Viti Levu, where all, except one, club was based. In 1942, under the Presidency of Harold B. Gibson, [cite news|url=http://216.55.168.28/soccer/show/home/affiliates.shtml|title=FIJI FA District Affiliates] a former member of the Legislative Council, Labasa Soccer Association joined the national football body, then known as the Fiji Indian Football Association.

Labasa remained at the periphery of soccer in Fiji, struggling to compete with teams from Viti Levu, until 1969, when it hosted the Inter-District Championship(IDC) for the first time. Soccer suddenly flourished in Labasa and the team was runner-up in the IDC of 1972, 1973 and 1978. Labasa F.C. finally won the IDC for the first time in 1992, repeating the feat two years later in 1994.In 1972, Lions had reached the final of IDC under the auspicious guidance of Mike Jones, a first division soccer player, originally from Wales. He played for Lions for several years and demonstrated some never seen before soccer talents on the local scene. He also improved the standard of Labasa soccer team. Mike Jones was an English language teacher at Bulileka Seondary School (now known as Bulileka Sanatan College) in Labasa, in the 1970s.

Some Labasa Soccer Players Include:

Shamal Kumar,Jope Lomu,Roy Krishna Hendry Dyer,Thomas Vulivuli,Dinesh Mudiliar,Sandeep Nair,Apisolme Turuva,Azmat Begg,Taniela Waqa,Samuela Kaitoga,Nemani Rasiga,Vereti Dixon,Mahen Lal,Intiaz Begg,Dhiren Chand,Alvin Avinesh,Joseph Nimarau,Kushal Naicker,Mira Sahib,Ajesh Narayan.Shivam Sami.

Fan-Fair

Over the years, the fan-fair of Labasa soccer team has grown tremendously. In the 1970s and 1980s (early part), the fans would hardly ever be in excess of 5,000 during any major game. Usually, there will be about 2,500 spectators during the league matches. That has now grown to around 10,000 for major games. The die-hard fans have also remained rather vocal for Labasa, mainly expressing their veiws through the media. This has been good for the team, since that has given more recognition to a team that was rather isolated for most part of the 1950s,1960s and 1970s.A name like Babasiga Lions resonates well with fans and is seen as a name of encouragement and emotional upbeat.

Achievements

Girmit Interdistrict Soccer Tournamnet: this tournament was held only once and was won by Lions. The final was played between Lions and Ba. Labasa had walked out towards the end of the game after Ba had fielded 12 players. Ba refused to replay the game (as was mandated by FFA) and thus Lions won in default.
*League Championship (for Districts): 2::1991, 2007
* Inter-District Championship : 2 ::1992, 1994
*Battle of the Giants: 1::1997; runner up in 2008.
*Fiji Football Association Cup Tournament: ::1992, 1997 (joint with Ba) 1999, Runner up2007& 2008
*Champions versus Champions: 2 1993,2008

Current squad

Fs start

References