Apart from Roy Krishna there is no other overseas based players that will join the Fiji football side to the Oceania qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

This was confirmed to Sun sports by national football coach Flemming Serritstlev this week.

Serritstlev said: “We are marching into camp next Monday, right now Roy is the only confirmed overseas-based player in the national side.”

“Overseas based players need to be in the country by Friday, January 10, 2022 so that by Monday they are cleared to join us.”

“Taking that into consideration, it is not possible to have another overseas based player with the COVID restrictions.”

Meanwhile Serritslev while watching the Digicel Premier League matches last Sunday was impressed with the standard of football displayed by teams.

“I’m happy with the pace and tempo of football played on the 12th round of the Digicel Premiere League,” he said.

“Although there were little stops and starts, the games flowed freely.”

“Both the matches I watched were good – the first game between Nadi and Labasa was a stunner with some good football displays.”

“Labasa had chances to score but they failed as Nadi refused to give them the satisfaction.”

“Well for Suva and Lautoka – they are two of the best teams in the competition.”

“Both teams played good football with pace and good passing – Suva just got lucky to score early and held the Lautoka attack.”

“I believe both games could have gone either way, as the teams created more goal scoring opportunities.”

“It’s good to see some new talents like Merrill Nand of Suva but a good player is the one that performs consistently and not a one game hero.”

Meanwhile New Zealand’s path to the World Cup in Qatar will start there when the Oceania qualifying tournament is played in the host nation in March.

The March 14-30 schedule for the Pacific region teams presents the first and indeed last opportunity for the preliminary competition to take place, FIFA said.

FIFA’s Oceania qualifying groups has put New Zealand with New Caledonia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

The other group has Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu, plus the winner of a play-in preliminary game between Tonga and Cook Islands.

The top two in each group advance to the semifinals, with the March 30 final to decide Oceania’s entry in the intercontinental playoffs.

Only nine of the Oceania region’s 11 national teams will take part.

Samoa and American Samoa withdrew.

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