Minister for Youth and Sports Parveen Bala says a report in 2014 stated that Fijian athletes remitted around $18.4 million per annum which is equivalent to 11 percent of the country’s total remittances within a year.
Bala says another study in 2014 found Pacific athletes sent an estimate NZ$21.7 million per year which is remittances from New Zealand alone.
Kumar has reaffirmed the Fijian Government’s commitment to a clean sporting industry, with an Anti‑Doping and Sports and Physical Activity Policy underway.
Bala says that these would be completed by mid‑2019.
He says there are many types of manipulations that exist in various sports and many types of criminals who take advantage adding the one they hear most about is match‑fixing; this is what happens on the field of play.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports and Fiji National Sports Commission are putting in place a new National Sports Policy and incorporating several new policies to protect Fijian athletes and sports; a Drug Free Sports Act, Safety in Sports Policy, Protection of the Athlete Policy, Child Protection Policy and Sports Governance Code.
Bala says other forms of manipulation included the falsification of age to participate in competitions, manipulating transfers between clubs to have a certain type of team and threatening athletes to lose a game or creating a penalty for an undue financial gain.
ADVERTISEMENT
