Simran Chand 
Fiji FA president Rajesh Patel.
Fiji Football Association will make a decision on the new head coach for the national men’s football team this Friday.
The new appointee will be a foreign coach and is required to be based in Fiji full-time.
While two local coaches, Marika Rodu and Sunil Kumar, hold the necessary OFC A-licenses, they were not among the five shortlisted candidates.
As reported by FBC Sports earlier, both are currently committed to their existing roles; Kumar is preparing the U-17 national team for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar, and Rodu had stated he is not considering the position at this time.
The association initially shortlisted six overseas candidates but dropped one who was not able to relocate to Fiji on a full-time basis.
Fiji FA president Rajesh Patel had recently announced that it is a must that our national coach lives and works here in Fiji.
He said in the past, Fiji FA had arrangements where the coach was based overseas and only came in occasionally.
However, this arrangement did not work out and having a coach based in the country full-time is crucial for the development of players and overall football goals.
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