The Team Fiji men and wom­en’s beach volleyball teams have been dropped from Pa­cific Games. This was confirmed yesterday by Team Fiji chef de mission Patrick Bower while an­nouncing the list of athletes and officials that will go to the 2019 Pa­cific Games in Samoa which is on July 7-20.

Bower said FASANOC tried their best to avoid making such a diffi­cult decision but was forced to take action due to inactivity on the part of the team’s management.

“Taking the athletes into consid­eration, we tried our best to make sure that they make an effort to try to get their athletes across the line, but we’ve had nothing from them,” he said.

“I think by anyone’s standards, we just can’t accept them.”

Unfortunately, beach volleyball will be unable to appeal the deci­sion since they failed to pay their levies on time. Each team is re­quired to pay $1500 per person in three different instalments.

Bower said there are four other teams who are backlogged with their payment, but unlike beach volleyball, those teams have made the first payment and have commu­nicated with FASANOC.

He also announced that this year’s Games won’t be another event; in­stead, he says we’ve got to go to the next level.

“Part of that change will be en­couraging officials and athletes alike to meet deadlines and stay on schedule, something that has been a problem for the team in the past. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t won the gold, but that they’ve done this country proud by sticking with the rules.” Bower added.

Below is the full list of athletes and officials. There will be a 48- hour appeal process for anyone who feels like they should have been given a spot. An appeals com­mittee will then meet next week to discuss any appeals.

Feedback: sydnee.gonzalez@fijisun.com.fj