NINA fends off complaints over unclear netball rules
In response to growing concerns from team managers and players over what they are saying are unclear rules by the Niue Island Netball association, NINA president Carol Edwards says that they have addressed the four letters of complaints filed with the national netball body.
Some netball team members contacted BCN news saying that many of their complaints filed with the NINA committee had not been addressed or that NINA had not acted on these concerns.
Carol Edward says that nature of the complaints can be put down to miscommunication and teams not being clear on the rules even though the team managers or their representatives were present at all the NINA meetings on the rules before the season started.
One team representative said that they and other teams are contemplating pulling out of the season unless NINA committee start to take their complaints seriously and address them.
BCN news is aware of the growing number of social media postings raising concerns over the unclear rules and rulings of the NINA officials. Some of these social media postings have turned nasty and become personal attacks. There are also allegations of physical and verbal altercations between some team officials and NINA executive members.
NINA president says that they appreciate all the efforts of the 23 teams from the managers and the players alike and at the end of the season they will be asking for constructive feedback from all teams on how they can improve. “We won’t promise to do everything that everyone wants but NINA will do what is best for the game of netball on the island”.
Carol Edwards says that it is very unfortunate that some of these issues between the teams and NINA officials have reached the point of personal and character attacking each other on social media.
Edwards says that as a result, three NINA officials have since withdrawn their names as referees. NINA in a move to compromise is now allowing teams to choose their own referees for their games and let NINA know.
The president of NINA says that she is just shocked at the behaviour of some of the players accusing NINA of focusing only on the men joining the competitions. Carol says that she was not expecting this poor attitude from female players about gender balance in sport.
This is the first netball tournament in over several years of not having any netball games on the island which also include men’s teams in the tournament.
Edwards says that she is grateful and appreciate the efforts of the NINA executive committee members who tried to resolve these issues on island while she is still in Auckland.
