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Two Fijian netballers with family ties to the military will not be making the trip to New Zealand for the World Championships after they withdrew their visa applications.
New Zealand has "smart" sanctions against Fijians who have connections to those involved in last year's coup in the country.
Alisi Tabete, president of Netball Fiji, would not go into details after arriving in New Zealand today and said: "We are here to play in the championships. We are focussing on the netball. We had good preparation and we are here to achieve our objective.
"We accept the position of the authorities and we are here to participate."
She said team morale was high.
James Funnell, spokesman for Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters, said the two players did not have visas declined - the players withdrew their applications themselves.
One of the players is Aliti Vakalala-Seru while the other has not yet been named.
Kereyn Smith, vice-president of the International Federation of Netball Associations, confirmed this afternoon that at least one of the visa applications was withdrawn because it was thought it would be declined by New Zealand authorities.
She said it was foreseen that there could be some difficulties and the federation had been working alongside the New Zealand Government to iron those out.
Ms Smith said the Fijians "want to focus on being here and playing, they have had a pretty rough time".
The Fiji Times had earlier reported that Seru, who works as a flight attendant with Air Pacific, had her working visa revoked earlier this year because her husband is in the Fiji military.
A source from the airline told the paper Seru's chance of securing a NZ visa thought Netball Fiji would be slim.
The team landed at lunchtime at Auckland Airport where a handful of supporters had gathered to welcome them with armfuls of salu salu (Fijian flower necklaces).
One supporter, Ateca Katonivualiku, said it was not fair that players were unable to travel for the tournament.
She said: "Stopping players who have worked so hard, some are related by in-laws, not by blood, that is unfair."
Another supporter said: "If there was a coup or no coup, we would still be a hundred per cent behind Fiji. Whatever happens in Fiji we are still proud of the girls."
Fiji coach and former Silver Fern Vilimaina Davu said team morale was still "up there" and the player who withdrew her visa application had accepted the situation.
She got the green light to play for Fiji from the international board a week ago.
"When I'm on the sideline and not playing, I'll be supporting New Zealand 100 per cent," Davu said.
The Fiji soccer team's goalkeeper Simione Tamanisau was denied access for a World Cup qualifier in New Zealand last month. The game was cancelled by soccer's governing body FIFA as a result.
Netball Fiji president Alice Tabete previously told the Herald that the passports of the chosen players were going to be be taken to the New Zealand High Commission last week.
She said at the time that she expected no problems with visas to enter the country in light of last year's military coup and denied Fijian media reports that one of the netball squad members withdrew because of a family military connection.
- with NZPA
