Finger Pointers : (l-r) Minister of Finance Lautimuia Uelese Vaai, Lakapi Samoa Chairman and Opposition leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and Sports Minister Laumatiamanu Mathew Ringo Purcell.
By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
The Manu Samoa canceled rugby tour of Europe this year has sparked a finger pointing clash this week at who should bear the full blame.
The Samoa Rugby Union or Lakapi Samoa, was forced to call the tour off, because they were unable to meet the costs.
Lakapi Samoa chairman and political opposition leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, admitted publicly that the usual funding support from Government did not come through.
His claims were vehemently denied by both the Minister of Finance Lautimuia Uelese Vaai and Sports Minister Laumatiamanu Mathew Ringo Purcell.
Both denied receiving any official request for funding from Lakapi Samoa after Tuilaepa made the issue public.
“Our application for funding was handed in last December 2023 in time to be included by the Ministry of Finance in the new budget,” Lakapi Samoa Chairman Tuilaepa told the local media.
“This has become a standard practice over the years for rugby but I suspect this time our application got buried under the daily pile-up of files dropped onto the Finance Minister’s desk,” he pondered lightheartedly.
Tuilaepa suspects the missing Lakapi Samoa funding request file may be the result of both Ministers having to find their way around as newcomers to their Cabinet portfolios.
Both Lautimuia and Laumatiamanu have gone public also to reject the Lakapi Samoa claims.
Sports Minister Laumatiamanu fully rejected ever receiving ay official request from Lakapi Samoa for funding the Manu Samoa tour of Europe.
“They did request funding last April but asked for the full $1.5m tala to cover all their rugby costs but it came towards the end of the 2023-2024 financial year,” the Sports Minister argued.
He made it clear also that other sporting bodies were waiting on Government funding around the same time including the support for the Pacific Games and the Olympics.
“The rugby request was rejected but Government did allocate $600,000 to help them take part in the World Rugby Cup.
“There was no funding request for the financial year currently underway already 2024-2025.”
The finger pointing clash is being left to simmer without any official verification.
For now the Lakapi Samoa leadership has decided to accept the disappointment of the canceled Manu Samoa tour.
“We have other rugby tours to look to in the future but for us the priority is to fundraise enough to meet our responsibilities,”Tuilaepa asserted.
“Our primary focus is to maintain the high level of rugby Samoa has achieved at the international stage and to do that we need to cover our costs.”