The Lautoka Football Association has urged their players to step-up to another level in their preparation for next year’s Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Champions League.

Lautoka FA president Abdul Kadar said the Champions League would be a different level of football and they want their players to be on par with other teams.

“It will be a tough competition and we will take the best players only,” he said.

Lautoka have experienced players like Kolinio Sivoki, Jone Vesikula, Zibraaz Sahib, Poasa Bainivalu, Jone Vonu, Dave Radrigai and Christopher Wasasala to name a few.

The Vodafone Premier League winners will play their pool matches in Auckland, New Zealand where they face defending champions Auckland City and Madang FC of Papua New Guinea during their pool plays in February, 2018.

“It will definitely be tough but we will be a prepared side,” Kadar said.

The players after playing two friendly matches against Team Wellington are on a break and will resume preparations next month.

“We are giving our players break during Christmas and New Year. We will have our board meeting next week where we will decide our preparations for the Champions League.

“We will also decide in the meeting whether to bring any players from overseas but the onus is on the players to show their worth to get selected in the final squad. We have not decided anything yet but in the board meeting we should come up with our plans for the Champions League.

“We have appointed our new assistant coach Ajinesh Prasad to help head coach Kamal Swamy but apart from that we have not finalised anything.”

Lautoka will be reappearing in the Champions League after seven years.

Meanwhile, Blues will face Labasa on January 6, 2018 in the first round of the Pillay’s Garment Champion versus Champion series at Subrail Park, Labasa.

The return clash is on January 12, 2018 at Churchill Park, Lautoka.

– Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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