We need to break down and get rid of the tier status in rugby.
That is the comment of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare founder and former Samoa rugby international Dan Leo who says the tier categories are totally wrong.
During an interview with fijivillage News, Leo says the tier status is designed to keep a gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” and at the moment, we as the Pacific Island teams are the “have nots”.
He says we have the talents and the players but when it comes to bums on seats and TV revenue, we are so far away from the nations that have a lot of money which makes it difficult for us.
He further says in soccer, they don’t talk about tiers as every national team that plays soccer is mentioned as a soccer playing nation and everyone has their vote around the table.
Leo flew into the country for the opening of the Pacific Human Rights Film Festival 2023 at the University of the South Pacific where the film that he produced "Oceans Apart: Greed and Betrayal in Pacific Rugby" was viewed.
He says this tier status is also one of the reasons why he made this film and coming over to Fiji to discuss the issue of how do we as Pacific people really challenge that status as opposed to just sitting back and being passengers on a ride and taking control.
The Film Festival will be showcasing films from around the region at USP until 9th December with the next film titled A Boy Called Piano scheduled next Saturday and will be at the New Zealand High Commission.
Meanwhile, coming up this Saturday are performances, exhibitions, readings and screenings by various Pacific artists at the USP.
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