Ravinesh Kumar and Mohammed Yusuf

Former Lautoka coach Ravinesh Kumar claims the Fiji Football Association still owes him money and he has reported the matter to the Ministry of Labor.

Kumar who resigned as the Technical Director with Fiji FA in March last year says he is exercising his constitutional right.

He says he lodged the complaint with the Ministry of Labor while coaching Lautoka last year.

This issue has now come to light after Kumar who was recently appointed as the new Nadi coach was informed he would not be able to assist the Nadi club Nalovo FC at the National Club Championship which started today in Sigatoka.

Kumar claims the reason why he was not allowed to assist Nalovo FC at the NCC is because of his complaint to the labour ministry but Fiji FA chief executive Mohammed Yusuf says that’s not the case.

Yusuf says at the moment Fiji FA doesn’t recognize Kumar as the Nadi coach.

“Nadi football like some districts have written to us and say so and so is their official coach, Nadi has not advised us who their official coach.”

When asked about Kumar’s claims of money owed to him by Fiji FA, Yusuf says the pandemic played a huge role in the non-payment.

“Like for COVID, 2019 the merit increase none of the staff got it because of COVID-19”.

However, Kumar says he can’t understand why Fiji FA is doing this to him because the economic effect of COVID-19 started last year.

“They were supposed to pay me when I resigned in March because they have given me the acceptance of my resignation letter so they must pay that and this came before COVID-19, COVID-19 came in 2020, I’m claiming for the money which I have worked for in 2019”.

Kumar says he hopes good sense will prevail because football is part of his life.