Samoan and Tongan rugby union executives are negotiating with Chinese government officials about investment in their sport as they grapple with the prospect of losing players to rugby league’s multimillion-dollar Pacific expansion.
A $600 million deal signed by the Australian government and the NRL last December included the introduction of a new team in Papua New Guinea, investment in grassroots development, and a $250 million contribution to growing rugby league’s footprint in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.
The deal was used as a way to shore up security as Chinese diplomats sought military and policing agreements across the Pacific region. It gives Australia a veto on the deal in the event PNG signs a security deal with China.
However, China’s attempts to capitalise on the so-called “rugby wars” by funding rugby union has inadvertently brought the Australian government back to the negotiating table with both sides facing off over who can support the game in the Pacific.
Executives from Tonga and Samoa described the league investment as a “punch in the guts”, claiming they will lose their best players to the code’s deep pockets. Rugby league is the main sport in PNG but in other parts of the Pacific, rugby union is entrenched in sporting culture.
“It is a concern to us,” Lakapi Samoa boss Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun said. “We are struggling financially to sustain our costs and in terms of securing our players. It might be the nail in the coffin of rugby for Samoa.”
Chinese money flowing into sport across the Pacific is not new. The superpower has invested millions of dollars in stadium infrastructure, transport and development in the region. In 2020, China’s Guangdong province donated two buses to the Fiji Rugby Union to support the development of rugby in Fiji.
But China’s diplomatic and sports officials have ramped up their efforts since the NRL announcement by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys.
In March, China handed Tonga a $US25m ($38m) National Sports Complex and in Fiji in May, the Chinese Rugby Football Association signed a memorandum of understanding with Fiji Rugby Union to explore team frameworks and talent development pathways.
Tonga Rugby Union chief executive Aisea Aholelei also visited China last month to explore partnerships across player pathways, coaching, school programs and commercial ventures.
Aholelei said the governing body has sought funding from a range of different places in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and private investors, but has had no luck to date. He said the visit to China was positive.
“They were really good hosts,” Aholelei said. “We already are talking to the Chinese government to help us because of the extent that rugby league is getting. We can’t sit on our behinds and just pray or just be sad, we have got to be proactive.”
Ngau Chun said he was also in talks with China about potential opportunities for rugby union in Samoa.
“That’s one of the opportunities we’re exploring at the moment,” Ngau Chun said. “Beggars can’t be choosers, and we’ll take whatever assistance we can get … but we would love to have the support of Australia.”
Countering China’s efforts to increase influence in the Pacific has been a priority for Albanese. In 2022 Scott Morrison was caught off guard when China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands.
A source close to the government familiar with the rugby union and NRL negotiations said he was confident that Australia was the “security partner of choice” for Pacific Nations.
“There is no question that China is seeking a permanent security foothold in the region, and we are involved in an enduring contest with China,” the person said.
An Australian counter-offer
Tonga, Samoa and Fiji’s governments are preparing to put forward a joint funding proposal to the Australian government for rugby union, in the hopes it will be enough to keep the sport alive. People with knowledge of the proposal have indicated they will ask for $150 million over five years.
The federal government suggested the Pacific region put something more formalised together.
“We’re hoping everything will be done in the next two months in terms of finalising the proposal, and each government will submit proposals via proper channels, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here to Australia,” Ngau Chun said. “[The money] is nowhere near the $250 million that’s been allocated to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga for rugby league.”
According to Ngau Chun, the proposal will ask for players, match officials and administrators to remain in the Pacific for local tournaments. Aholelei said it was also about ensuring the countries could be competitive internationally.
Samoa has a population of about 217,000, and World Rugby suggests about 20,000 are registered participants. Tonga, which has a population of approximately 104,600, has 15,000 registered participants but World Rugby data estimates about 60,000 participate in the game in some form.
Fiji, with a population of about 924,000, has 230,000 registered players.
“There’s a lot of gaps that we have to fill in just to be competitive with Tier One nations,” Aholelei said. “I don’t want it to be geopolitical, but we’ve got to try and find something give us the competitiveness on the international stage. We don’t want to be beaten by 70-100 points every day we play international teams.”
The Australian government is willing to look at the proposal, but is expected to be more favourable to an agreement with security elements.
To date, Australia has already made a number of investments in rugby union, including a $14.2 million investment to support high-performance across the Pacific and a $9.5 million Team Up program, a development initiative that supports rugby union. To date, most of the investments are of significantly less value than what the NRL received.
The exact reasons for the huge amount of the funding relative to rugby union are still unclear. A government spokesman said the $600 million investment into Papua New Guinea and the broader Pacific region made sense because about 50 per cent of NRL players had Pasifika heritage.
“This initiative will deepen bonds between Australia and its Pacific neighbours, while helping to boost economic development and contributing to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific,” he said.
He said the details of how the $150 million Pacific Rugby League Partnership would work across Tonga, Fiji and Samoa was still being designed in consultation with the ARLC, DFAT and more than 260 stakeholders.
For their part, Ngau Chun and Aholelei both believe the investment in rugby league will be good for the athletes. They say it will provide them with more opportunities and help their families. But they claim it will come at a cost to their national sports and dilute player talent.
They had hoped the government had consulted them before the PNG announcement to understand the inadvertent impact on a sport already entrenched in the region.
“When we heard that was coming in, it kind of it was a big punch in the guts … the first thought it seems like a rugby league takeover,” Aholelei said.
Source: The Australiana Financial Review
