AS promised we turn our focus on the developments up at Rugby House and how the vanua connections have weaved its politics into our national sport.
Over the last few days the media had reported how the Fiji Rugby Union president Ro Filipe Tuisawau, a former president of the FRU and former directors have called on members of the FRU board to play fairly but call a spade a spade.
The case at hand is that of FRU's acting chief executive Keni Dakuidreketi who faces charges of fraud and why the board will not accept his resignation to do the honourable thing for rugby's sake and step down.
In the professional era, politics is one topic that can draw a lot of interest when mixed with sports.
Recently we heard of Fiji's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations and how Fiji will not take part in the 2010 Commonwealth Games where the Fiji 7s team aims to strike gold under the able coaching of Iliesa Tanivula.
The Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee president Vidhya Lakhan stated: "If, as it is reported, the Commonwealth Secretariat is saying that Fiji will not be allowed to take part in the 2010 Delhi Games, then that is a case of politics interfering in sports. The Commonwealth Games Federation should, in accordance with its own Rules and Regulations, just ignore it."
In Fiji soccer, a former vice president of the parent body who has migrated to the USA said it was a norm for very senior officials to actually buy votes of the Northern district delegates or gain the hands of officials of premier divisions to stay in power.
On the international scene, vigorous campaigns are launched and eventually well padded envelopes change hands in broad daylight, well before voting takes place, when there is bidding to host competitions.
Another form of politics I guess is when lobbying is done to persuade committee members etc to vote for your proposal.
Sometimes it can go beyond just lobbying. It may involve favours done. Then again, sometimes it depends mostly whether the bidder can prove that it has all the facilities etc needed to accommodate the tournament's needs.
When everything is equal, this is where the lobbying becomes intensive.
I suppose politics exist everywhere, rugby too.
The main thing is to ensure that sports achieve what it set out to do in "honest politics".
Such things still exist, rightly or wrongly, but is acceptable to return favours as long as these favours are done transparently and honestly.
The politics to see that the right people who can devote their time and energy for the sport and not expect something in return apart from what has been initially agreed upon (for the paid staff) are selected.
If we go back to early April it was when the media thrived on reports of how the affiliated unions along with FRU president battled in a war of words with then FRU chairman Keni Dakuidreketi. By then the CEO Timothy Daniel had resigned.
It has come to light that during the term of the incumbent FRU board had unanimously agreed, advertised, interviewed and was going to appoint a new CEO.
This was when Dakuidrekleti stopped discussions to say that the new (current) board would appoint the CEO.
What a coincidence. The chairman was already acting in the CEO position when this happened. He knew that he was going to get in again after the election despite the president Ro Filipe trying to get rid of him.
He knew a former politician was campaigning for him and Waisake to the Nadroga and Nadi rugby unions through the vanua connection.
Where did Waisake appear from?, no one has a clue.
A special meeting with all the presidents of unions took place on the night before the AGM with Dakuidreketi chairing.
That picture taken at the 2009 AGM with delegates wearing the same colour bula shirts talks of a united front.
At the FRU's 2005 election Keni was almost beaten by John Whippy,(15-14, I think), whereas the rest of board members scored over 30 votes each. In 2007 Koli Korovulavula almost beat Dakuidreketi.
A former board member said he sensed from this time that he (Keni) was going to go in the next one and that was this year.
To his surprise, Dakuidreketii had the maximum vote. How was this possible.?
It was the campaign through the links with the vanua.
So much for politics and a craving for power.
But let's give credit where it's due. Dakuidreketi has maintained his innocence and has contributed what he could in over 10 years in the position of chairman or as director of the FRU,
Critics still will always ask what FRU has gained? What new developments has FRU achieved?
What is FRU achieving now that was not achieved by the previous administration in the 1970s and the 1980s.
To me it's exactly the same. We have not brought about any major or substantial difference. The board is doing exactly same thing that other boards had done in the past.
The board seems to be concentrating too much on processes rather than policy, development and taking FRU to another level in terms of standard, Securing other sources of income apart from sponsorship, upgrading of existing buildings, need for an international-sized playground, the need of good standard playing grounds around the country, gymnasiums for major union, taking the HPU concept to be stationed at each major union with costs to be paid by FRU.
At times it seems that the only thing that binds a union and FRU is the rugby rules. Unions run their own competition with their own rules and regulation.
They select their own coaches whether the coach has a formal grade or not. FRU cannot change a union coach. Competition format for unions cannot be changed by FRU. Look at the ground problem faced by Suva. FRU has not made a positive contribution to that problem at all in these last years.
Yet these players playing in undersized grounds are the ones representing Fiji in the PNC, PRC and Flying Fijians.
A little upgrade is needed at the Nauluwai, Korovou, Ovalau, Rewa and Tavua grounds to at least bring it up to some respectable standard. These are some of the examples that needs to be looked at urgently by FRU.
On the other hand the Island Zone and B Division championships. This two competitions need an urgent review.
Their competitions should be relooked at again so that maximum mileage and benefit to Fiji Rugby and players in terms of showcasing untapped talents are attained.
Since 1976 it was revealed that one of the major weakness in players was weak upper body strength. Almost 40 years down the line this problem still exists.
At the last world cup, our tight five was a problem especially our props. The 2011 event is around the corner and I might as well say right now that nothing has been done to our local props.
If something has been done than we should be seeing the difference between the other props during the Digicel or Farebrother games.
In short the operation at FRU house is just planning of next year's fixtures local and overseas and prepare for it then when next year comes around we all supervise the running of the fixtures until the tour of the Flying Fijians normally done in November-December. Then the cycle begins again.
I think Keni's use by date for FRU to try and achieve the above during his time is over.
