The Fiji Football Association is working hard in trying to secure international matches against Asian teams later this year.

Fiji FA president Rajesh Patel said yesterday that Vodafone national football coach Christophe Gamel has been working hard with his contacts.

“This is all planned for October and November,” he said.

“We’ve got good indication that we might play Hong Kong FA, Philippine Football Federation and the Football Association of Thailand when they come on their New Zealand tour.

“Chris (Gamel) has convinced them but I’ll be meeting them in Bahrain with the president of FA Thailand and see if there is a possibility if Fiji can travel to New Zealand to play them there. It’s very important because the Asian countries are our neighbours and some of them have better FIFA rankings.”

Patel said Gamel also visited the Solomon Islands.

“We’re working with the Solomon Islands to come and play us here. We’ll decide and see what we can do in September as well. But before our New Caledonia game we are looking to play Solomons but that depends on them agreeing on our invitation to play them here.”

Meanwhile, the Fijian men’s football team are ranked 181 in the current FIFA world rankings while our women’s team are ranked at 116.