It will be a hectic next few days for Netball Fiji president RubyAnn Sorovaki and her committee as they discuss ways to get the sport back in order.
This, as 15 of its 19-member associations including the Fiji Primary and Secondary Schools boycotted their special general meeting (SGM) on Saturday, threatening they are no longer affiliated with Netball Fiji.
Taken aback by what has transpired, Sorovaki was forced to think of the next course of action that will benefit the sport as a whole.
“There’s just a lot that we have to go back now and deal with. It means there is a lot of work, what it also means is taking feedback to figure out the best way forward ensuring that as custodians of the sport, at the end of the day netball is the priority so there is a lot to be done.
“Give us an opportunity to go back and figure out how to manoeuvre around this new development that we are facing now as a sport, it may get worse, it may get better, we can’t anticipate that, it’s beyond our control, we can only focus on that now,” she said.
Twelve motions were presented during the SGM with no apparent solution reached as the associations felt their plight were not heard while Sorovaki maintained with the advice of the SGM chair, Vanessa Kilner, that the issues were not in breach of their constitution.
One of the many issues raised and questioned was the voting rights of the executives.
“Only the 19 presidents should be voting, no one else should be voting and we are totally against the executives voting, 12 of them against 19 of us, that is insane, that shouldn’t be in our constitution,” Suva Netball president Alumeci Sachs said.
Sorovaki defended the existing constitutional framework, stating the voting rights were established according to the constitution and that any changes would need to follow proper procedures.
The boycott meant the 15 associations including major members in Suva and Lautoka will no longer be part of any Netball Fiji-sanctioned competition.
