Worried Samoa on brink of bankruptcy
SAMOA are close to filing for bankruptcy ahead of next month’s Test against England. CEO Vincent Fepuleai told the
Mail on Sunday that the national team’s future is under serious threat from mounting debts.
The Pacific Island nation have issued a plea for help from the rugby world and also requested a £150,000 cut of next month’s revenue at Twickenham.
‘Our fate is dictated by our situation and we are close to insolvency,’ said Fepuleai.
‘Without desperate support from our government, we would have been a closed shop a long time ago. We have had debts of almost £1million and we are still making a loss. It’s a huge struggle,’ he continued.
‘I wouldn’t like to speak about the worst-case scenario. We don’t want to go down the road where there is no Samoan national team because our people have a lot of passion. This must not happen.
‘This year’s tour is going ahead as planned. If we can’t afford to put together a team then there will be no tours. World Rugby give us funding but we still need a system of revenue sharing.
‘Money is at the centre of everything. The economic model is absolutely wrong.’
Samoa’s players will earn £650 per Test on their autumn tour, compared with £22,000 for their England counterparts.
World Rugby have no rule that host nations must share revenue, despite England never playing a Test in Samoa to balance the books.
Fepuleai sent an email to RFU CEO Steve Brown and England head coach Eddie Jones asking for help but the onus is on World Rugby to rescue the Pacific Islanders from administration.
An RFU spokeswoman said: ‘The Samoa CEO has written to us and informed us of a funding dispute it has with World Rugby and this may be prompting their request for a match fee.’
She added: ‘We operate fully within the guidelines set by World Rugby for the Old Mutual Wealth autumn Test series and these guidelines do not require a fee to be paid. This is clearly an area for World Rugby to take a closer look at and we have had assurances from them that they will.’