Ben Ryan publishes his real views on Fiji's bid to host 7s rugby

Note: He gave these views in interviews with Fiji journalists but not a single one of it was published or aired.

I thought hard before writing this.

I left Fiji almost a year and a half ago now.

Should I just keep my views to myself?

Keep my nose out of things even if I see what I think is wrong?

One of the many things Fiji helped me regain was being true to yourself - to be authentic.

I worked, lived and breathed Fiji and Fiji Rugby and feel I have some knowledge of the landscape Fijian Rugby operates in as well as global rugby to have an opinion. So I’m telling this story.....

On the day I arrived to the coral coast sevens, I was asked for some interviews by the media. No problem I said and the opening questions were on the tournament and quality of players etc. The journalists in Fiji know I won’t comment about Gareth or the fiji 7s team performances etc and they were very professional in not asking me anything in that area.

Then I was asked about fiji’s bid for hosting a leg of the series. I told them my views as I was asked the question and I have serious reservations about what is happening.

Not a single word was written about what I said. I imagine they were told not to print it.

I wasn’t prepared to back the bid for the following reasons.....

1. The overseas consultants asked for a budget of $1m FJD just to put together the bid. That’s hugely excessive and a massive waste of money. What are they spending it all on?? The bid should cost $0 fjd to put together as it’s a process that can be done using FRU staff and their internal resources. No other bidder for a leg is spending anywhere near that amount. Why are they wasting money with radio adverts etc? How has this been allowed? Wool being pulled over someone’s eyes that for sure. It’s wastefulness of the highest degree.

2. The tournament will cost a huge amount of money to run and will not make a profit. Tax payers money will have to support this. The consultants Involved were also part of the fiji golf tournament, which lost around $12m fjd a year. If it was a company it would have gone bust. Again tax payers money. HK and Dubai (Dubai due to the other tournaments run alongside the series leg) are the exceptions to this but all the other tournaments - a huge percentage of those in the stadiums are from that country hosting it. Tourism won’t get a huge spike from this and you can’t charge overseas ticket prices if you want to get a good crowd.

I am no longer a tax payer but if I was, I’d want to know if the plan to finance this was through government funding. I don’t want to get into the social morality side of this but in my three years living and working on the island, I saw how a small amount of resource can go a long way to improve a persons standard of life in the villages and towns of fiji. This sort of money would make a huge difference if spent correctly.

3. The players are still the lowest paid in the top 10 Sevens teams in the series by a long way and none are given the security of a contract longer than a season. The top players in the Fiji 7s squad get $15k fjd maximum as a salary. This is the equivalent of over three years salaries for the entire men’s and women’s sevens squad that this massively over inflated bid is costing.

4. . How about they sort all of that out first for men’s and women’s teams - far bigger priority for sustaining 7s success. So is coach development on the island. So is Player development programmes. So is referee development programmes. Better Talent ID programmes. The list goes on....It will be a huge drain on finances which will mean cuts elsewhere in programmes. It might do the opposite to the fiji 7s team and lead to less funding which could lead to less success on the field. For more success on the playing fields for all the Fijian teams - that’s where any additional finances should go - not to the bid consultants and tournaments that are not financially profitable.

5. Imagine if this money was to fund a Super Rugby Franchise on the Island instead? Regular visitors to matches not a fraction of this once a year.
Home grown players staying on the island and not going overseas because there is a professional team in fiji. Huge boost to local economy throughout the year. Super rugby franchise academies to develop players, local coaches, medical staff, managers, conditioners etc. More contact time possible for the National players which would lead to more success for the XVs team. Merchandise and sponsorship possibilities. I could keep going. NOW THAT IS EXCITING. That is a good use of this amount of money. I know what I’d rather see and what will make a bigger difference to Fijian Rugby.

6. Now I know having high profile events in fiji will increase the profile of the country but so does the team, so would a good RWC 2019 campaign, a super rugby franchise and many other things that do not cost this amount of money. The team’s success at Rio led to fiji being the top search on google for a while and I know hotel bookings etc all went up as a result. You don’t need a tournament costing millions to do that.

7. I, alongside I’m sure every Rugby fan in the globe would love to one day see a leg of the World Series in Fiji. A leg that is profitable. That’s not now and there are many other priorities before that in my opinion. Some more transparency in all of this is needed.