Financial constraints have meant that Samoa will take only three out of the intended four teams to the 2024 Touch World Cup in England.

President of Samoa Touch Incorporated Matiu Tuileva Tuileva said the Open Men’s team will not compete at the 2024 Touch World Cup, due to the money situation. 

“Unfortunately, the Open Men’s have made the tough call to sit out the World Cup because of the huge financial commitments,” said Matiu.

"A lot of the local players in the Open Men's team are students and unemployed people who cannot afford to make the financial commitments," added Matiu.

Matiu said that the Incorporation has sought funding from the government but has yet to receive the necessary support. 

"While they've responded positively by agreeing to fund the registration for each team, we still haven't actually seen the cabinet approval or seen any part of that funding," Tuileva Tuileva said.

In preparation for the World Cup, expenses need to be paid well in advance. One of these expenses is the team registration fee, which is due on 30 April. However, as of now, the fee has not been paid.

"We still haven't paid it because we're still waiting for the funding from the government. Last we heard, the proposal has been tabled for cabinet approval on Thursday,” said Matiu.

"Fingers crossed that the disbursement process under MOF's guidance of protocols will be much faster to allow us to pay the team registrations before 30 April." 

Despite the challenges, Samoa Touch remains committed to competing in the Touch World Cup. 

"The goal is for Samoa Touch to focus on the three Open divisions," said Matiu. The three Open teams are the Open 30s, Mix and Women's.

Matiu also noted that the Olympics in Paris, which takes place the week after the Touch World Cup, has contributed to the high cost of airfares. 

"It has significantly affected our preparations and the airfares as well as going to England in July," said Matiu.

"Given the distance and cost of travel to the host country for the July World Cup and in a post-COVID world coupled with inflation, I'm sure players who have already scoped flight routes and airfares to England have found out that every day that figure keeps climbing."

Preparations beforehand were also a challenge coming straight out of a successful Pacific Games in 2023.

"There was very little time after the Pacific Games for us to conduct trials and fundraising," said Matiu.

According to Matiu, unlike other major sports such as rugby and cricket, touch rugby does not receive funding from its international board. 

"A lot of our activities are self-funded with the generosity of some of the usual donors who have been kind enough to come on board and help us out," Matiu said.

Despite these challenges, Samoa Touch remains hopeful that they will be able to compete in the 2024 Touch World Cup.