The Fiji Rugby Union recorded a profit of $1.6million in the last financial year.

This was revealed during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Saturday.

The profit was a big win at Rugby House following a loss of $1.6m in the 2021-22 financial year.

Board trustee Jenny Seeto said they hope to maintain this moving forward.

She added that this was achieved through prudent financial management and governance and also the increase sponsor-ships which demonstrated the confidence that the sponsors had in the trustees.

Seeto also commended the commercial director in getting additional sponsors to support the running of the administration of Rugby House.

“From January to September (this year), we’ve done the accounts and had a quick internal audit as well- we’ve achieved a profit of over a million dollars,” she said.

“Going into the rest of 2024, if things are managed properly in the next few months, we should be able to have another significant profit as well.

“We need to sustain and increase profit-ability as well; team expenses take a lot of our funds.”

The trustees will stay on for another four years and will have an oversight role to the board of directors who were appointed at the AGM.

FRU interim board chairman Peter Mazey added that the union is in compliance with all World Rugby requirements following the clearing of the debts which he hopes to be cleared fully by the end of this year.

This has allowed the union back to the World Rugby Council where chief executive officer Rovereto Nayacalevu will vote.

“We were able to clear substantial debts, and that was over $7m in debts. Now we cleared the vast majority of that, but in particular we were able to repay $2.7m in a loan that World Rugby had given that everybody intended to forget had to be re-paid,” Mazey said.

“The trustees act as the oversight to make sure we never get into the problems we had last year and that we ensure that the assets of Fiji rugby which are substantial are protected.”

New board of directors

Seven new board of directors were appointed for the Fiji Rakavi Football Union Trust board (FRFUTB).

These directors include former Fiji Rugby Union High performance manager Koli Sewabu, who is one of two directors of rugby.

Other directors include; Anare Manulevu (director finance), Mosese Naivalu (director legal), John Sanday (director commercial 1), Tevita Tuiloa (director commercial 2), Cathy Wong (director Womens Rugby) and Conway Beg (director Rugby 2).

The board chairman will be appointed following their meeting.

Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj