Playing too fast and too loose

OMG, as my 11-year-old son likes to say. Isn’t Fiji rugby in a mess at the moment? But it’s put a smile on my face because one thing I certainly didn’t think I would be writing, is ‘Well Done’ to the International Rugby Board.
From their perch in Dublin, they have seen a situation developing in Fiji that they are not willing to tolerate. So they’ve jumped into the highly charged mix of who should be running Fiji rugby.
The message from the IRB would appear to be, FOLLOW YOUR CONSTITUTION. And if you won’t or can’t, then don’t expect to be a member of the IRB because the IRB, like all international sports federations, takes these things seriously.

And if you don’t believe me, Google ‘FIFA suspension’ and ‘IOC suspension’: Iran, Kenya, Bangladesh, Iraq, Nigeria, Peru, Salvador, even Greece, who won the European Championships in 2004, are just a selection of national associations that have recently been suspended or threatened with suspension by FIFA.
And, likewise, the IOC have clobbered Olympic Committees like Ghana, Panama, Kuwait, Bulgaria and Iraq. In each and every case the reason was government interference in the constitutionally elected sports body.
Whether in each of these cases the governments’ motives in trying to get involved were good or bad, the message from those who run the Olympics, football, rugby, whatever sport, is DON’T TOUCH.
The background is important here: no funding was announced for either the Fiji Rugby Union or their Rugby World Cup campaign in the November national budget. Following the controversy over the last-minute discounting of the FRU’s lottery tickets and subsequent investigation by the Commerce Commission, at a press conference on January 10 the media reported the Minister of Sport making the point that “the current mismanagement of the FRU administration … was the reason there was no specific mention of funds allocated to FRU in the 2011 Budget” (Fiji Sun, January 11, 2011).

However in the same article, it was announced that “three million dollars will be given with the condition of having a new administration in place,” according to the Minister for Youth and Sports Filipe Bole.
So. $3 million for the 2011 Rugby World Cup campaign, but conditional on the board of the FRU resigning. Perhaps because they were looking to the greater good, the board accepted the government’s precondition and resigned en-masse, setting in motion a special general meeting to elect a new board.
On January 14, the FRU said this SGM would take place in Suva on February 26. Then, just four days later, this was dramatically accelerated: the SGM was being brought forward to January 29. The FRU press release gave no explanation why the meeting had to be advanced 26 days, meaning that delegates would have less than a fortnight to study whatever papers are sent out and to caucus amongst their own provincial or affiliated stakeholders for their views.
You can imagine how this looked to those watching from IRB headquarters in Dublin. Someone was playing too fast and too loose.

Now, for argument’s sake, let’s say that the government’s position enjoys popular support, that people in Fiji are totally fed up with the leadership in Rugby House. Where is the problem, you might ask? What has alarmed the IRB is that, really, the only way to describe that $3 million pledge is government interference: You want this money from the taxpayer, then all of you constitutionally elected directors must resign.
And the IRB has said this must stop. In effect, the government (or any third party, like a sponsor, coach or player) has no right to dictate who is or is not a director of the FRU. Not for the sake of $3 or $3 million.
Only the provincial unions and affiliated bodies like the referees and schoolboys, have that power. And if those stakeholders want to kick out the FRU’s directors then the constitution provides for that too. They should get off their behinds and start the ball rolling.
So, as I write this column, the hastily set-up special general meeting appears to be on hold thanks to the IRB’s formal intervention. A letter written to the FRU’s interim chairman asks for a pause in proceedings, no unnecessary acts of hara-kiri, and above all else for the FRU to observe, respect and follow its constitution. That constitution provides for a completely lawful way for one, some or all of the directors to be voted out of office.
Ultimately it is through this constitution, not any act on the sports field or the mere fact that people play rugby in the country, that the FRU is a member of the IRB.
The relevant section in the IRB’s constitution could not be more clear:

“A Union may be suspended or expelled from IRB membership pursuant to the IRB Bye-Laws and/or Regulations if state authorities interfere in its affairs in such a manner that:
(i) it may no longer be considered as fully responsible for the organisation of rugby related matters in its territory;
(ii) in the opinion of Council or the Executive Committee it is no longer in position to perform its constitutional and regulatory tasks in an appropriate manner.”
And those who love Fiji rugby should remember that you ignore this at your peril. Aside from the levels of funding the IRB provides, if you’re not a member of the IRB then you can’t play in the IRB Sevens Series or the IRB-run Rugby World Cup.
Just ask Sri Lanka.
Because one date you might just have missed in all of the excitement is January 5, 2011. Just a month ago. You see, for the best part of three years, rugby in Sri Lanka was run by the government through a series of directly appointed committees.

This so outraged the IRB, just as it outrages them the direction that Fiji is heading, that for those three years, since 2008, the IRB refused to give them one penny of funding. And they didn’t.
Not until January 5 this year, by which time the government had climbed down, dissolved the handpicked leadership and given the sport back to a properly constituted, independent sports body.
Is that really what you want?

Charlie Charters is a former Fiji Rugby Union official and resides in North Yorkshire, England.