WORLD RUGBY UNION COUNCIL

Taitusi Sokiveta, Phoenix, Arizona

The World Rugby Union Council Board should not have some kind of qualification in order to become a member of the board.

You don’t have to go through a qualifications assessment to qualify to represent your country as ambassador to the United Nations.

It’s the same thing with the Olympic committees or governing body of FIFA which covers soccer around the world. You get nominated because your country is a major soccer playing nation like for Fiji it is rugby. This is a racial joke and it’s run by old men who came out of the apartheid era.The reason why Fiji or Tonga are not in the race is because it is run by these old white men who make up these racial policies depriving Fiji from being a member of the World Rugby Council.

Look at its members how many people of colour or women are in it? With the number of international Fiji rugby players throughout the 20th century and this century even winning an Olympic gold medal in rugby for Fiji, they don’t need a qualification to be a World Rugby Council member.

They should already be a member of the World Rugby Council in the 1930s when Fiji went on an undefeated tour of New Zealand.

This World Rugby Council needs to be looked at by the Security Council of the United Nations and their policies should be investigated. There is something not right with this World Rugby Council and its policies and why a country of colour like Samoa is just now allowed to join as a board member yet they have been playing rugby as long as Fiji.

Also why all these qualifications to be qualified to be a board member? Did all the current board members go through the same qualification requirement when the World Rugby Council was formed and their delegates were nominated?

What’s so strange is that Brazil has been playing soccer, as long as Fiji has been playing rugby and is in the FIFA World Soccer Council and Fiji is not in the World Rugby Council.

The time is overdue to take this issue to the United Nations organisation. Why is Fiji being deprived of being a member of the World Rugby Council?

TAITUSI SOKIVETA’S letter was published on October 11. He will be awarded a Philips Steam Iron as the winner for the Letter of the week.