Samoa is on the brink of a four-year suspension from international rugby after the Samoan government announced it is withdrawing support from Lakapi Samoa, the country's rugby governing body, due to "unresolved internal issues and division".
World Rugby has set a Friday deadline for the Samoan government to accept a proposed review of that decision, according to the Samoa Observer.
Deadline and Potential Ban
The Samoa Observer reports that failure to accept the review or respond by the deadline could result in Samoa being suspended from international rugby for four years. The development followed a meeting between Lakapi Samoa and World Rugby representatives this week.
Declining Fortunes
Samoa's standing in world rugby has rapidly diminished in recent years. Once ranked as high as seventh in the world in 2012 after a win over Wales in Cardiff, they fell to an all-time low of 20th this year. They barely scraped into next year's expanded World Cup in Australia following a 13-13 draw with Belgium last November.
If Samoa is banned, Belgium could theoretically be handed a reprieve and reach their first World Cup.
Government Intervention
In March, Samoa's Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt said the government would set up a rival union if the entire Lakapi Samoa board did not resign. He had previously expressed dissatisfaction, saying the sport had been "politicised".
"We’re coming in to clear out all the politicians inside our rugby union," he said in February. "At this stage, our rugby is very impoverished ... we are in the level that Samoa had never been before, because of what? Because of management."
In June, World Rugby formally appointed Lakapi Samoa chairman Afioga Namulauulu Papali’i as Samoa’s representative on the World Rugby Council. The appointment was said to reflect World Rugby’s recognition of Lakapi Samoa’s constitutional processes and reinforce Samoa’s continued place at the highest level of international rugby governance.
