Sir Bill Beaumont’s link to convicted killer at the top of Fiji rugby slammed

Sir Bill Beaumont’s attempt to win re-election as World Rugby chairman has been thrown into further chaos after the governing body received a damning letter demanding that key supporter Francis Kean — head of the sport in Fiji — be stood down.

Beaumont’s association with Kean, a convicted killer, has been branded an ’embarrassment’. The letter, seen by Sportsmail, also calls for the chairman of the Fiji Rugby Union to be removed from office immediately.

Votes in the critical elections are due to be cast this week and Sportsmail understands Beaumont hopes to secure Fiji’s vote in his campaign against Agustin Pichot.

Kean seconded Beaumont’s nomination in the election race, even though he has been convicted of manslaughter and has since faced allegations of homophobia.

Former Samoa captain Dan Leo, who is also CEO of the Pacific Rugby Players Welfare group, wrote to the governing body on Monday night calling for immediate action after they launched an investigation.

Leo’s letter points to a further allegation that links Kean to an arson attack on the studio of a Fijian journalist who condemned his inhumane tactics while working in the military. It also questions the legitimacy of his diplomatic passport.

‘Francis Kean should be stood down,’ Leo told Sportsmail. ‘It’s an embarrassment. It’s an indirect slur on Bill’s campaign but he’s got a chance to rectify it. If it was an honest mistake and he just didn’t know, there’s time to change that. Maybe they should look at postponing the elections.

‘Somebody like that should not be allowed to be nominated as one of the key people to run our game. It sends out the wrong message in terms of the values with the sport. It conflicts with what we are trying to do through PRPW, which is to clean up the corruption and the negative way that politicians influence the game in the islands. All this situation does is promote it.   

‘We’ve known about Francis Kean for a long, long time. Why haven’t questions been asked and why hasn’t this information been fed up the chain until now? What else has been missed? We talk about the game being inclusive. This isn’t just a man who has made homophobic slurs, he’s killed someone.

‘It is extraordinary to anyone involved in the game in the Pacific that Kean is even on the ballot. His time in office has become a byword for intimidation, vindictiveness, corruption and self-dealing, nepotism and the threat and realisation of violence.’

Kean was found guilty of the manslaughter of a man at a wedding in 2006. He was sentenced to 18 months but released early. World Rugby started an investigation into claims of homophobia against him on Sunday and said it ‘takes these allegations extremely seriously’.

Kean is brother-in-law of Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama, who is also president of the Fiji Rugby Union.