The man behind Lautoka's unbeaten league games

"Look after the players well and they will deliver the goods.

These are the words of Lautoka football president Abdul Kadar — the man behind the success of the Lautoka football team.

Kadar and his Blues outfit have engraved a new chapter in the Fiji FA history book as the only unbeaten team in this year's Vodafone Premier League games.

Despite falling short in the Fiji FACT and the Battle of the Giants, the side regrouped and maintained their fairytale run to maintain its 13 consecutive unbeaten league games.

Early this year, the side set out its goals and its primary target was to win the national league title.

The players endured the hard yards, shed tears and sweat on and off the field to achieve their goal.

With only two games to play the sugar city boys have already clinched the title.

They did not only win the title — the players and the management comradely worked together to create history for the sugar city as the only unbeaten side in the competition.

This rare feat was attributed to many factors as mentioned by Kadar — who only took over the presidency chair last years.

During his reign- he has led the Blues to win the 2016 BOG, 2017 Champions vs Champions title and the recent achievement is the league title.

He reiterated "you look after the players' welfare well — they will not disappoint you".

"Each player and their families are well looked after by various sponsors.

"We have sponsors that not only looked after the players but their families also.

"We also have the Lautoka fans club where the players' wives and mothers meet occasionally and fundraise to support the team — in fact these women also accompanied the players to any game venue in Fiji — including the BOG in Labasa.

Kadar said their achievements all gwent back to proper planning and goal setting.

"Early this year we set out a plan of what we want to achieve and according to the executives decision our target is concentrate on the league from the first game.

"We need to have a plan before only then we will know what we are playing for and where we are heading.

"We aimed for the league title because we wanted to expose our players to higher competition like the O'League."

"We started well and led the points table throughout. Although we lost at the BOG and Fiji FACT but our impressive performance at the league games motivated the players to play their hearts out during the league games.

"We are delighted that we did not only win the title but we maintained our unbeaten run in the competition."

Kadar thanked the players for their sacrifices, perseverance and dedication.

He also thanked the sponsors who have contributed immensly to the success of the team.

"Credit goes out to the boys for their marvellous performance.

"We thank the league main sponsor — Vodafone and of course our sponsors Design Engineering, Techni Cool, Johan Pharmacy, General Machinery, KBL, Oceania Water Group, Global Flights Centre, Singh's Rental, Global Cleaning Fiji Ltd, Lautoka Central College for the use of their ground, Cross Air and Ocean Freight, Fiji FA, the team officials, the executives and the Lautoka fans for supporting the boys through the thick and thin. Without sponsors we would not have achieved our goal."

Lautoka last won the league title in 2009.

IDC and development

With the league title in the bag, Kadar said next on their radar is the prestigious Inter District Championship title.

He said the boys would use the IDC tournament as an ideal preparation for the upcoming O'League games.

"Now we will be concentrating on the IDC as we have achieved our league games aim."

He said apart from their busy football calendar the side was focused on developing new players and new coaches.

"We are also developing upcoming coaches.

"We have Peni Finau being appointed to assist our head coach Kamal Swamy and there are two youth coaches who are going for their C-Licence from next week.

"Our head coach is in New Zealand to his A-Licenced coaching at the same time we are grooming new players to feature in our remaining league games."

Attitude

Lautoka is blessed to have some of the country's experienced and best players. And coaching these star players would be a tough assignment for any coaches — taking into consideration the wealth of experience under their belts.

Head coach Kamal Swamy's attitude was a key ingredient to a winning team.