$3.1m injection
Afive-year $3.1 million deal between Vodafone Fiji and Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) for the sponsorship of the Fijiana 15s team was confirmed at the Vodafone headquarters in Tamavua yesterday.
Vodafone Chief Marketing Officer, Rajnesh Prasad prior to the contract signing congratulated the Fijiana Drua team for their back-to-back Super W victories.
“If you look into history, we have sponsored the men’s sevens team and Flying Fijians,” Prasad said.
“We won our first Olympic gold medal with the sevens team so we’ve been with FRU for a very long time.”
Vodafone Fiji alongside consortium partners have been the biggest rugby sponsors since 2013. Five years after committing to the consortium and achieving back to back wins (7s), Vodafone Fiji shifted the sponsorship focus from the national teams towards grassroots development.
“This is where we moved away from sponsoring the 7s and the Flying Fijians,” he said.
“Our developments witness us committing to the primary school competition known as Kaji Rugby and the secondary schools’ Under-18 trophy.”
The Vanua championship competition for the 16 districts is another grassroots development programme sponsored by Vodafone in partnership with FRU.
Vodafone Fiji’s partnership with FRU ensures that the Fijiana 15s team members have kits, resources and financial capacity to compete in international competitions and tournaments.
“The decision for Vodafone Fiji to sponsor the Fijiana 15s team demonstrates our commitment to sports, diversity and inclusiveness as well as the belief in the tremendous potential in our athletes,” he said.
FRU acting chief executive officer, Sale Sorovaki said Fiji Rugby was grateful to Vodafone Fiji for their tremendous support.
“We know that there is a lot of challenges in Fiji Rugby, but we are thankful to Vodafone for believing in the women; it is a statement to our communities out there that they deserve the level of support that they getting from Vodafone,” he said.