Fiji Football Association has suspended one of its senior staff following his alleged irresponsible actions.

Referees director Rakesh Varman was captured in a video, which alleges that he was dumping rubbish on the beach along the Coral Coast.

The video was uploaded to Facebook and been shared by people condemning his act.

Fiji FA chief executive officer, Mohammed Yusuf said their independent investigation committee would carry out the necessary actions.

“He is suspended, pending the independent investigation and the report will go to the board and the board will decide,” Yusuf said.

“We have an internal process. It depends, because of this pandemic and everything how fast we can gather all the statement and information.

“We will let the process unfold.”

Fiji FA president, Rajesh Patel also issued a statement on Friday night after the video was circulated.

“Fiji Football Association is aware of a video being speculated where a staff member is allegedly been involved in dumping rubbish on a beach along the Coral Coast.

“This was brought to Fiji FA’s attention via a video uploaded on Facebook, which is now viral over the social media.

“Fiji FA has always championed the course of protecting the environment in all our programmes and events. We have a Social Responsibility team that is regularly engaging with the society all over Fiji for the protection and safeguarding of the environment.

“Fiji FA will never condone such irresponsible acts.

“Meanwhile, for this alleged action as seen in the video, the staff member has been indefinitely suspended with immediate effect and has been advised to provide a detailed report on the issue as well on his personnel capacity.

“Fiji FA has a code of conduct policy and such actions call the immediate attention of the Association to fully exhaust the internal disciplinary process.

“The staff member has been advised accordingly for the above actions while we will carry out our own investigations to ascertain the facts on this issue before a final decision is made by the Fiji FA Board.”

Efforts made to obtain a comment from Varman proved futile as he was not answering his phone.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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