Samoan PM Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt has warned that if the entire management does not stand down, including Lakapi Samoa chairman and former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, his administration, together with former Samoa rugby players and supporters, will establish a rival union.
Photo: Facebook/ HRPP / Savali Newspaper/ Lakapi Samoa. Edited by RNZ Pacific
Samoa’s national rugby body, Lakapi Samoa, is caught in a high-stakes political stand-off with the government as the country’s prime minister refuses to sign off on a multi-million-dollar Australian government funding deal because his political opponent sits on the union’s board as its chairman.
La’aulialemalietoa (La’auli) Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt has warned that if the entire management does not stand down, including Lakapi Samoa chairman and former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, his administration, together with former Samoa rugby players and supporters, will establish a rival union.
The Australian government, through the Veimoana Partnership, makes AU$150 million available to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The five-year deal is aimed at developing rugby in the region, boosting rugby and economic development in the island nations.
La’auli wants the current Lakapi Samoa board and management completely out of the picture.
He claims rugby in Samoa is in disarray because of the current Lakapi Samoa management.
According to the government-owned Savali Newspaper, La’auli has held meetings with Rugby Australia and World Rugby and raised the process for allocating the stalled funds.
“Asking them, if the government signs, then what is next, what will it do with the funds, where will it go – to the rugby union, yet it sees major governance issues existing there he said,” the newspaper reported.
Tuilaepa told Newsline Samoa that the deal was agreed to and expected by the three unions.
He said while the Fijian and Tongan prime ministers signed the deal, the rpocess in Samoa was delayed after former Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s government fell, triggering the 2025 general election and a subsequent change in leadership
Tuilaepa claimed when La’auli became prime minister “he refused to sign [the Veimoana Partnership] because he wanted to sack all the members of Lakapi Samoa] Board”.
“Australia is not unaware of the problems that Samoa [rugby] is facing … politicising by La’auli, and it is not a good attitude for a leader.”
According to World Rugby rules, a national union must be independent from government inteference.
Lakapi Samoa risks being suspended or expelled from World Rugby membership if the governing body see’s the government’s actions as interfering in the union’s internal affairs.
If La’auli follows through with his threat to start a new union, Samoa could face an immediate ban.
Tuilaepa said “there is nothing wrong” with the Lakapi Samoa Board.
“In fact, since I was involved, not because I was a politician but because I was a player, and a person keen on encouraging professional sporting opportunities for our young people.”
RNZ Pacific has reached out to Lakapi Samoa for comment.