Former Samoa international Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has accused the New Zealand Rugby Union of being so money hungry it would have sent the All Blacks to tour Nazi Germany had the price been right.
Fuimaono-Sapolu took aim at the NZRU for refusing to schedule an All Blacks Test match in Samoa, despite the huge contribution that players from the Pacific island nation have made to the New Zealand national team.
Responding to claims that a Test in Samoa would not make money, he said the NZRU had refused to suspend rugby ties with apartheid-era South Africa because of the cash on offer.
"That's the worst excuse ever because it justifies the killing of innocent people, because it justifies racism, it justifies the killing of black people because they are black," he said in a video posted on YouTube.
"I'll go one step further and say, that if Hitler had an interest in rugby and fronted the money and showed the All Blacks, told them to come tour Nazi Germany, the All Blacks would."
It is not the first time Fuimaono-Sapolu has invoked the Nazis to make a point.
In 2011, he received a six-month suspended ban after likening Samoa's World Cup match schedule to the Holocaust and slavery. He also accused Welsh referee Nigel Owens of racism after his team lost to South Africa.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew this week said he would not rule out playing a Test in Samoa but the team's schedule meant there were no opportunities for a fixture before 2019.
The NZRU had no immediate comment on Fuimaono-Sapolu's outburst.
Source: AFP
