05-10-2024 Breakfast Bites FIJI & PACIFIC SPORTS NEWS Podcast S011E04 #TeivovoSports #TeivovoDigital

Kia ora, Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 11 Episode 04 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on Saturday morning 05 October 2024.
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the Blue continent, where it is mostly cloudy and a crazy 24 degrees Celsius at 5am this morning.
 
In Rugby: As he goes in search of an NRL Premiership ring in his eighth season with the Melbourne Storm, Fiji Bati Captain, Tui Kamikamica is ready for the big stage.
 
“For me growing up in Fiji, to be here in this moment is a pretty good achievement. Making my family proud back on the islands. Every time I go out there, I want to make them proud. Not just my family, but as a nation, because I’m Fijian and I play rugby league here at the highest level,” Kamikamica said. 

The Storm have a proud history of Fijian stars donning the purple jersey, from dual premiership winner Suliasi Vunivalu to blockbusting Wing Marika Koroibete and 2012 NRL Grand Final winner Sisa Waqa.

“I’m the only Fijian here at the moment. It’s up to me.” 

In Rugby League: On the eve of the NRL grand final, big boss man, Peter V’Landys says this could be Sydney’s last, as he is open to the idea of selling the grand final and having it move around cities like the Super Bowl in America.
 
Sydney has held every grand final in rugby league’s 116-year history except for 2021 when Brisbane hosted due to COVID19 restrictions.

The 2025 NRL grand final city is yet to be locked in and the city of Melbourne has put its hand up to poach rugby league’s biggest day from Sydney – especially if the Melbourne Storm poopoo the Penrith Panthers!

In Football: In a landmark decision that could shake up the global football player transfer system, the Court of Justice of the European Union, ruled yesterday that some international football rules, regulating player transfers, are contrary to the EU’s laws.
 
This after former French footballer, Lassana Diarra legally challenged FIFA, over what happens when players unilaterally terminate their contract.

In a highly anticipated verdict, judges found that current FIFA rules hinder the EU’s free movement and competition between Clubs.
In Boxing: IBF World Middleweight Champion, Janibek Alimkhanuly was too good, stopping New Zealand challenger, Andrei Mikhailovich in the 9th round of their fight in Sydney last night and said later that he could have ended it in the second round, but wanted to punish the Kiwi.
 
Finally, only in the USA: Have you heard of “The Savannah Bananas”?
 
An independent baseball team that has become a national sensation, a big-thinking out-of-the-box US organization.
 
Now they’re thinking bigger than ever.

Loosely described as baseball’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters, the Bananas unveiled an eight-month, 111-game “World Tour” for 2025 that includes playing in football stadiums for the first time.

The Bananas have slotted dates at two NFL facilities—the Titans’ 69,143-seater Nissan Stadium and the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium which seats 74,687, along with another at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium which can surpass 86,000 fans when including standing room. 

Those events will be joined by two games each at 18 MLB ballparks, rising dramatically from the six games played this year at big league facilities.
The Bananas sold out every game in 2024, playing to more than one million fans—more than what MLB’s A’s drew this year and it has a ticket waiting list of about three million, including one million that joined in a 24-hour period this week for their “World Tour”. 
The Bananas have drawn broad acclaim for their unconventional style of play, known as “Banana Ball,” which flouts many of the sport’s established on-field rules and traditions,...