FRU reviews domestic competition structure

The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) has conducted three rounds of consultations to ensure that the member unions are fully compliant by the Terms of Participation (TOP) of the domestic competition prior to March 31.

These TOP includes governance structures, financial accounts, provincial club games, player registration, conducting union AGMs (annual general meeting) and constitutions.

FRU chief executive officer Koli Sewabu said there would be potential changes to the format of the domestic competition.

“It’s based on some of the financial analysis that we’ve done last year with our competition,” he said.

“We are re-looking at what should be the model for Fiji rugby union moving forward.”

The Fiji Rugby domestic competition structure includes the Skipper Cup, Subrail’s Marama Championship and the Vodafone Deans Trophy.

While the Vodafone Vanua Championship and the Royal Tea Ranadi Cup are contested at the lower tier.

Sewabu said they have proposed a new strategic plan that the board is yet to endorse.

“The finally endorsement coming on Saturday, which is the first board meeting of the year, then we’ll be able to put it out to the media,” Sewabu said.

“We’ve had consultations with our staff last week with any new change. It’s a new organisation structure so there’s going to be staff changes within.”

He added that there are likely to be new positions created and advertised.

“It’s working towards a fit for purpose organisation with a lot of consultations,” Sewabu said.

The former Flying Fijians No.8 highlighted that they had faced a few challenges in ground bookings with the Fiji Sports Council (FSC).

“We’ll try to build a relationship with FSC on identifying, which grounds to use so that they can also help us facilitate not just the bookings but conditioning of the grounds and getting them up to standards,” he said

“It’s what we can do to assist the unions as well but also for the unions to identify two grounds as one will be their main ground and what will their option ground.”

Sewabu emphasised the need to ensure the ground is up to standard.