Fiji Rugby House Suva Photo: Alex Perrottet/RNZ
The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) has authorised a full audit of player payments before it will respond to claims of continuing non-payment or late payment of allowances by players.
Interim FRU Board chairman Peter Mazey has confirmed they have now hired a chartered accounting firm to do the work for them.
This follows the recent allegations by senior Flying Fijians players that they have had to endure waiting for long periods of time before they received allowance and bonus payments.
There were others who have also alleged they still have not received their full payments promised to them.
"We have decided to implement a full audit of the payments," Mazey told local media in Suva.
Later, the FRU said in a statement "they will not be making any comments regarding the recent allegations raised online, as there is an ongoing investigation into this matter".
"To ensure a thorough and impartial review, we have engaged the services of an external audit firm. We are committed to transparency and will share the findings of their investigation with the media and public once it is complete.
"We appreciate your understanding and patience during this process."
Many rugby critics in Fiji believe the issue of late or non-payment of allowances is nothing new within the FRU.
They hope that the audit will also go back to the days of the former Frank Bainimarama-led FijiFirst government, which also had control of the FRU then.
Former top FRU official Charlie Charters told RNZ Pacific there were several reasons why payments were later in most instances.
Charters said the biggest reason has always been the delay in the release of funds from funders or donors and the FRU payment systems are reliant on how fast they can get funds out from funders, like the government.
"I can remember when I was working - as an example - to get money from the Ministry of Youth and Sports because of all the acquittals that we had to get.
"Then the whole file went over to Ministry Finance and that took an age."
Former captain Waisea Nayacalevu dropped a bombshell earlier this month that players were on the verge of boycotting the Flying Fijians' quarterfinal clash against England at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in Marseille due to broken promises by FRU.
Since then, senior players like Semi Radradra, Levani Botia and Sam Matavesi have joined Nayacalevu, with some of them claiming the issue has been ongoing since 2015.
Similar claims were also made by members of the Fijian women's players in 2022 and 2023.
There is also calls now for a player association to be set up to protect the players, a call led by Suva Rugby secretary and lawyer Nemani Tuifagalele and former player national representative Randall Kamea.
Kamea said the issue goes back to the 90s, when rugby went semi-professional, before it turned full professional a few years later.
