The Samoa Soccer Team members have reported disagreement which lead to fights between the team members as a result of questionable selection processes.

According to one of the players Kevin Ah Kuoi the incident began because of what some players dubbed as ‘unfair selection’.

He says that during the soccer camp for team Samoa, the names for the final squad was called out, those who had been training for a long time were unhappy as first choice selection was given to Kevin Ah Kuoi who had not trained from the start.

Disagreements then began amongst players, the list was reviewed and again annouced this time not by the coach but by the adviser Darren Iocca, and Kevin says his name was again included.

Once again the long term players were complaining that having Kevin in the team was unfair as he did not train and was suffering from a foot injury.

The players did not believe this was fair because the team had agreed that once you are injured you are off the team.

The players continued to complain until another squad was named this time by Team Manager Tafa Solomona, this time Kevin says his name was excluded.

Kevin says after that the team started arguing eventually turning into a physical dispute causing him and other players including one of the key players Desmond Faaiuaso to take-off from the camp.

Kevin Ah Kuoi however, explains his side of the story saying he believes he was fairly selected.

“The team selected for the South Pacific Games, was looking for a local team to play against. Our team Adidas, managed by Geoffrey Strickland took up the challenge and played team Samoa, and we defeated them, fair and square. Two of our team, myself and another player were then called in to the national team after judging us from our performance during this game. We went to the trials and were selected, and now that the games are almost here, my name has been removed from the list. Now I think that is not fair, and being part of the team was just a waste of time.”

Team captain, Chris Cahill was also contacted and he confirmed that the team did fight because of disagreements due to selection.

He says that personally he is happy with the team: “I was not involved but I am happy with the selection it is now up to us to play to the best of our abilities. All we need now is for local players to have my back and we shall all support one another.”

The coach of team Samoa was contacted for a comment, they denied dispute amongst the players, those who have not been selected are expected to train harder so when one of the players are injured they will be called in to play.

---

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Add Comment