THE road to Rio starts with Vodafone Fiji 7s coach Ben Ryan realising his aim to increase his players’ salaries and keeping them playing rugby fulltime.
Yesterday, Ryan said the government funding of $2.4m would go towards more sevens contracts and salary increments.
Our contracted sevens players are being paid $15,000 to $20,000 depending on how long they have been playing and which ranking order they fall in.
They also receive bonus payouts when they win World Sevens Series tournaments.
In comparison, New Zealand’s sevens players are paid a minimum $NZ45,000 ($F65,882) plus $NZ2000 ($F2800) at every tournament.
Ryan said the government funds would allow things that were on the backburner to be brought to the forefront.
“We have offered some new boys contracts so we are hoping they would accept them. Nemani (Nagusa), Emori (Waqavulagi), and Sevu (Sevuloni Mocenacagi). I think the three boys here are not contracted at the moment. There are a couple of boys training with us who we would like to offer contracts and we have got that government funding now, so it is fantastic that we can use that to expand our squad,” he said. “I want to see some decent salaries. It will be very distasteful for me to reveal how much the players are actually earning. They are not getting much money as they would get abroad. We are trying to get them enough money so they can concentrate on playing and put in a good performance for Fiji.
“The government funding is excellent and that added to our HSBC World Series money, we roughly get $100,000 for the women and $200,000 for the men. That plus the government funding and with the sponsors money we can do our job accordingly.
“The crowd funding has been marvellous and I know that a lot of the public are looking forward to giving us donations.”
Ryan also went on record saying the departure of Radrodro Tabualevu as FRU CEO was regretful.
“My personal regret is that Radrodro’s leaving Fiji Rugby Union. He has been fantastic in all dealings that I have had with him. I am sorry to see him leave and I am sure he would make a success story wherever he goes,” Ryan added.
The team moves into camp next week and departs for the first leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series on Thursday.
* Two new caps in Ryan’s squad: PAGE 88
