SRU Secretary Nemani Tuifagalele

One of the rejected Suva Rugby Union’s motion for this Saturday’s Fiji Rugby Union Annual General Meeting is for FRU to explain the legality basis of its existence.

This means FRU should explain whether it’s a company limited by guarantee, a charitable trust or both.

SRU Secretary Nemani Tuifagalele says should FRU confirm they’re a charitable trust, then the trustees should be running and making decisions at the moment regarding any issues from now on in relation to FRU affairs and the upcoming AGM.

“This is the legal question that we’ll have to ask and I think it’s very important for FRU to clear themselves out as to what they are really and map their way forward. I think apart from being optimistic of the result of our appeal we’re looking at that as an avenue where probably the trustees should step in and look at the affairs and make decisions appropriately.”

FRU has said that all unions’ motions for the AGM are not valid as they failed to comply with the governing body’s agreement.

Suva has appealed the decision and will have its hearing tomorrow.

According to one of Suva’s motions is that the FRU’s legal officer must not hold or be the Board’s secretary at the same time.

This is because the independence of the Board from FRU management is clearly demarcated and preserved.

Suva is also proposing that unless FRU increases the current grant by another $20,000 to each Union, FRU should remove the Skipper Cup men’s development team competition as it added unnecessary costs to unions.

According to the SRU, FRU must explain why it has not acquired any real estate assets over these years in the form of sports ground, billeting house or apartment, or high-performance fitness gym which is similar to Fiji Football.

We’re still waiting for a response to our request for a camera or phone interview with the FRU Acting CEO which was sent via email at 1:57pm on Monday.

The FRU AGM will be held in Lautoka on Saturday at the Tanoa Waterfront Hotel.