Vodafone Fijian football coach Christophe Gamel is serious about Fiji qualifying to play in the FIFA World Cup.

After Fiji’s unsuccessful bid in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying round against New Zealand last month, Gamel says, the focus is on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“I will start my plan for the 2022 world cup qualifying event with my visit to Asia where I will be meeting with the Asian national teams and arrange build-up matches against them from next year,” Gamel said.

“For the next two years I want to ensure that we play Asian teams and then we move to Qatar and Europe playing teams like Qatar and Hungary.”

The French national has also coached clubs in Qatar and Hungary.

“We need to play more international friendly games and from next year in the FIFA international friendly window I’m looking at Fiji playing.

This will also improve our FIFA rankings as well.

My purpose of the visit to Asia will be purely on securing international friendly matches with the Asian teams.”

Gamel also revealed that two Fijian players are on the verge of signing a deal with overseas clubs.

“I don’t want to reveal the names of the players until everything is confirmed.

“It will be good for the players to play professional football overseas like Wellington Phoenix’s Roy Krishna.

I hope to finalise the deal for the two players soon so that in time for the 2022 World Cup we will have more experienced and developed side,” Gamel added.