FRU crisis

executive, who did not want to be identified, told SUNsports.

The IOC charter does not allow for government or political interference in the running of an international sporting federation.

In the past, World Rugby has warned government officials about interfering in the governance of rugby in its respective countries. Under its by-laws, World Rugby has zero-tolerance for political interference, with suspensions from regional and international tournaments a possible consequence.

The Government needs to act quickly to appoint independent people to resolve in the board the current situation at FRU. A government appointee was someone who was there as a link to government, but not to hold a leadership role.

However, at Rugby House for the past 16 years, the Prime Minister’s nominee ended up as board chairman.

It was only until recently when PM Sitiveni Rabuka’s nominee, Suva lawyer Simione Valenitabua, declined the chairmanship post, which resulted in Daniel Whippy as deputy chair.

In a statement yesterday afternoon, Mr Turaga indicated that the FRU could not operate as a charitable trust for the following reasons:

■ FRU is being run by its board using the articles of association of the FRU Company, which is illegal for charitable trusts.

■ There is no link between the Fiji Rugby Football Union Trust Board (the charitable trust) and the Fiji Rugby Union PTE Limited (the company limited by guarantees) for the governing instrument of one to apply to the other, and vice-versa.

■ The 2018 constitution being used by the FRU Board to make appointments to run its affairs, set the Annual General Meeting, call for nominations, defend appeals by Suva, Naitasiri and Namosi, and operate thus far is not registered under the Charitable Trust Act, nor at the Registry of Titles, and is therefore illegal.

This is due to the fact that it was unsigned and undated by the Trustees, unaccompanied by the minutes of the meeting of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) or Special General Meeting (SGM) of the FRU wherein the constitution was adopted, not witnessed, signed and stamped by any Commissioner of Oaths or solicitor, and not endorsed, signed and stamped by the Registrar of Titles at the time it was lodged for registration.”

In light of these anomalies, Mr Turaga said that under the laws of Fiji:

■ The FRU will need to regularise and legalise its status as a charitable trust to be consistent with the provisions of the Charitable Trusts Act 1945.

■ Until and unless the status of FRU as a charitable body is regularised, the AGM cannot be convened.

■ Unions and members of the FRU will have to be notified of the new AGM date by a new Board of

Trustees in due course, and:

■ Its AGM planned for this Saturday (29 April 2023) has to be deferred

Mr Turaga said using powers vested in him by the Charitable Trust Act, he would now move to:

■ Protect the assets and operations of the FRU.

■ Appoint interim Trustees of the FRU to take it forward to a SGM.

■ Appoint an interim administrator to act on behalf of interim trustees.

The repercussions

Meanwhile, Fiji Sun spoke to three former FRU executives who shared similar sentiments of a worse-case scenario.

Failure to act quickly could result in Fiji being suspended from World Rugby, losing its seat in the council, and the Fijian Drua’s Super Rugby Pacific license possibly revoked. The Flying Fijians could also be banned from this year’s Rugby World Cup in France, and the Fijian men’s and women’s sevens teams could be excluded from the HSBC World Sevens Series and next year’s Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Fiji’s representative to the World Rugby Council, Cathy Wong, confirmed that she was part of the ongoing discussions. She said World Rugby has been advised accordingly. Last night, Fiji Sun reached out to some board members to find out if they had resigned or otherwise.

FRU board

In regards to Mr Turaga’s call for board members to resign, Mr Whippy said there had been no communication between him. Trevor Nainoca, Simione Valenitabua and Amani Bale have resigned.

Mere Rakoroi said she had not seen the press release by the A-G and would comment when appropriate.

Efforts to contact Biu Colati and Muni Ratna were unsuccessful when this edition went to press.