FRU begins brand evaluation process

The rebranding of the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) is underway.

This was revealed by FRU chief executive officer Koli Sewabu last Saturday following the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Novotel Suva Lami Bay.

“We are engaging a partner who’s doing a brand evaluation of Fiji rugby that is about to be completed,” Sewabu said.

“What’s going to happen from there is they will be coming to Fiji and do a brand evaluation of all our products- Skipper, Vanua, Marama, Deans, and Kaji rugby.

“We’ll put a value of each of those products, which will form the basis of our value of the Fiji rugby, then. From then on, we can now shift into working with our sponsors to ensure that they’ll actually give us the value the brand that we have.

“In saying that, we have really grateful to our sponsors and our donors over the last weeks. If it wasn’t for this support, it would have been difficult to run the affairs of Fiji rugby. We look forward to continue to engage with them, and learn on how to serve them better, but also grow well.”

More than $200k profit

FRU recorded a profit of more than $200k in its inaugural year as Fiji Rakavi which is their commercial arm.

This was also highlighted at the AGM.

Sewabu said he was unsure of previous years but this year they had an unqualified audit from their auditors Ernest and Young.

The financials were presented in two parts; the Fiji Rugby Football Union Trust Board Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2025, and the Fiji Rakavi Football Union Limited Financials for 2025.

FRU generated total revenue of $27.08m and recorded a net profit of $231,920.

He said they are working with their trustees through the new transition as part of the major changes and also with World Rugby.

“Major improvements in there, a lot of adjustment in terms of how the two sort of complement each other

“Ernest and Young Australia were here a couple weeks ago to also look at the financial health of FRU and what improvements we can put in place to take us to the next level.

“The exciting things now is some of the proposed forecast that we’re looking into next year to actually how we’re going to grow the commercial and financial side of things, especially with our rugby nations coming in July this year.”

New restructure of domestic competitions

This year’s Skipper Cup competition will see the addition of two teams.

Sewabu said Saturday’s AGM started with a workshop with member unions regarding compliance requirements for domestic competitions, in terms of game management and new restructure of the competition format, for both the Skipper and Vanua competition.

He said they are also reviewing the terms of participation (TOP) following consultations with unions over a few months.

“We’ve looked at last year’s competition, if we follow the same TOP, then there is no provincial team or no team from Vanua Levu and that is a concern to us in terms of the growth of the game up North; we can’t afford that.

“Through deliberations and consultations with union, we’ve come to an agreement where we will try and include in our TOP if we can keep a team from the North over the next two to three years, which we are going to then assist them in growing the game in the North.”

As part of the development in the Northern division, FRU will establish a high performance centre in Labasa.

“We are negotiating with Labasa Town Council and we are just about to sign the agreement and also start to work on establishing our high performance center and put our staff to equip, build and grow the game from primary schools level, all the way to the provincial level in the North.

 “We are scrutinising our TOP to make sure that all the risks that are there are media mitigated or removed and then we fill up all the games that is part of our TOP, that has been an issue over the past couple of years,” Sewabu said.

Discussions were also held over the plans of this year’s competitions and moving forward.

He added, FRU hopes to make the database live with their partners AIA Sports which would monitor and provide statistics of players from the age grade to wherever they play.

“We started to talk about some of the current changes, which has some impact, in terms of our new database. So that impacts on domestic rugby, player registration, and how that flows through to players moving across.

“AIA also provides us with comprehensive performance analysis tools. All our performance analysts for all the national teams have now been given access.

“For example, we are about to name 60-member squad for rugby nations and for that, the database has really given us some really good data in statistics based on players who are currently in the squad who were not in the previous squad, that are exceptionally well in Europe, in the UK.

“The management the and coaching team of the Flying Fijians are looking at this and to form the basis of his selection.”

Feedback:  sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj