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How do we help Emerging Nations?


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Recently was added on Facebook by a man called Tjart Van der Walt who I’m led to believe will be coaching South Africa in their World Cup qualifier in June against the Cook Islands. 

This morning he’s personally asked for sponsorship for the team and players which had been liked by only 7 people and shared just once. Despite my optimism for the sport I doubt this will go very far to little success.

The obvious answer is to utilise SARL official Facebook, not sure why he isn’t - unless I haven’t seen it.

Is there a way in which we can help? I know there was once the RL Development Fund for Emerging Nations that got canned because of red tape and believe it or not a LACK OF APPLICATIONS from Nations.

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2 hours ago, welshmagpie said:

Recently was added on Facebook by a man called Tjart Van der Walt who I’m led to believe will be coaching South Africa in their World Cup qualifier in June against the Cook Islands. 

This morning he’s personally asked for sponsorship for the team and players which had been liked by only 7 people and shared just once. Despite my optimism for the sport I doubt this will go very far to little success.

The obvious answer is to utilise SARL official Facebook, not sure why he isn’t - unless I haven’t seen it.

Is there a way in which we can help? I know there was once the RL Development Fund for Emerging Nations that got canned because of red tape and believe it or not a LACK OF APPLICATIONS from Nations.

The RLDF was never canned because of red tape. It was solely down to apathy from the possible applicants. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to give money away.

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Just now, deluded pom? said:

The RLDF was never canned because of red tape. It was solely down to apathy from the possible applicants. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to give money away.

My apologies, I thought I read on the LU forums that there was a lot of hoops to jump through to just give money away.

shame it fell away nonetheless.

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Just now, welshmagpie said:

My apologies, I thought I read on the LU forums that there was a lot of hoops to jump through to just give money away.

shame it fell away nonetheless.

The worst issue we had with red tape was the very first grant to Jamaica. It seemed to take an eternity to get them the money. The following years it was fairly easy.

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13 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

The worst issue we had with red tape was the very first grant to Jamaica. It seemed to take an eternity to get them the money. The following years it was fairly easy.

Can I ask how much the grant was?

From my experience with a bunch of different emerging nations, there are a stack of different problems.

The RLIF/APRLC/RLEF will not help in any way unless the nations are members of those governing bodies. Often getting to that point is the hardest part. For example you could very easily do a bit of paperwork yourself, online, and register as a nonprofit in Australia and fairly easily open up a bank account in the name of the nonprofit.

In El Salvador you have to engage a lawyer and to do so which will cost you thousands. In a country where the average wage is $3,000 or so a year it becomes near impossible for them to self fund. Sponsorships also don't happen because nobody knows what the sport is. El Salvador is probably one of the most financially secure Latin American rugby league team though because we're able to draw on sponsors in Australia. Saying that though, we're talking about a few grand per year.

Nicaragua has their own problems. To become a sporting body you have to found smaller bodies in at least 3 departments (states or counties) then you can qualify to create a national body that oversees the departments. So far we've been lucky because a university is helping us.

Panama is another one I'm working on. It's very early days but I'm finding it difficult to get anyone on the ground to coach. The whole of Central America is difficult because the closest nations with any ideas about the game, Colombia and Mexico have no money to travel and the Central Americans have no money to help bring them over. Colombia to Panama is surprisingly expensive and difficult. I'm working on it though.

 

I'm also trying to get something happening in Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. But it's hard.

 

El Salvador and Nicaragua haven't been able to play a game yet. There is no opposition except for themselves. We had a game planned which was relying on RLIF funding which was pulled at the last second.

I'm helping Puerto Rico get a 9s team to the Carolina 9s. They're all US based players. The numbers are looking ok.

Peru is looking to get a team off the ground based in Australia. They are very close to having the numbers. I'm hopeful they'll have a game this year.

 

The main problem is there is no development officer for 600m+ people and the governing bodies want you to do all the development work first before they will acknowledge you and then reap the rewards...

 

 

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It sounds like a catch 22 situation in Central America from what Pulga says. 

On a more general note I guess that handing out money to a person said to be running the game in a country has its risks. If it is a properly set up body, then the funds are more likely to be protected and used more wisely. Wasn't there recently a funding set up for the Congo to travel to Burundi to play a match? When they got what was needed the Congo team didn't travel and played a cobbled together side at home? 

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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1 hour ago, RayCee said:

It sounds like a catch 22 situation in Central America from what Pulga says. 

On a more general note I guess that handing out money to a person said to be running the game in a country has its risks. If it is a properly set up body, then the funds are more likely to be protected and used more wisely. Wasn't there recently a funding set up for the Congo to travel to Burundi to play a match? When they got what was needed the Congo team didn't travel and played a cobbled together side at home? 

Where did you get that info from Ray?

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Here's something actionable and relatively easy: If you have social media, jump on there and follow the various emerging nations. Share their posts, like, retweet, whatever. Often these guys are up against the other code in their nations. Being the code with more followers/more engagement goes a long way to be seen as the legitimate type of rugby. 

Maybe think about buying a jersey and then take a pic of you wearing it. It's certainly morale boosting.

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10 minutes ago, Pulga said:

Here's something actionable and relatively easy: If you have social media, jump on there and follow the various emerging nations. Share their posts, like, retweet, whatever. Often these guys are up against the other code in their nations. Being the code with more followers/more engagement goes a long way to be seen as the legitimate type of rugby. 

Maybe think about buying a jersey and then take a pic of you wearing it. It's certainly morale boosting.

Yeah, I definately think this is the way to go.  "Helping" may be too ambitious but we can certainly support.

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10 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

Where did you get that info from Ray?

It was a post by Theroonba saying that a game between Burundi and the DR Congo met its funding target but the game didn’t go ahead so Burundi played team of Tanzanians instead. 

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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2 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

On this forum?

Yes, it was a topic by DoubleD entitled "African Developments" on October 11th, 2018. DoubleD kicked it off with this sentence in a larger piece he wrote:

Congo are also planning on playing a return international fixture away in Burundi on 27thOctober.

theroonba posted on the 28th:

Burundi - DR Congo was not played today for some reason - they had a gofundme page, which met its target - but instead Burundi played a team called "Tanzania Heritage Rugby League" and won 54-0.

He then added a few comments later:

It was made up of Tanzanian nationals living outside Tanzania - Burundi say they consider it to be pretty much a national team, as Tanzania is not affiliated to RLIF.

I don't know if I got the wrong end of the stick but getting the funds and then the DR Congo not travelling seemed dodgy to me. This Tanzania team I assumed was made up of immigrants living there. 

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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