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BORDEAUX - Namibian rugby union (NRU) president Dirk Conradie and his entire executive committee have been barred from attending the World Cup in France, organisers confirmed today.
Conradie has been accused of complicity in the irregular sale of World Cup tickets, a charge he denies.
The news was first broken in The Namibian newspaper but was later confirmed by International Rugby Board spokesman Greg Thomas.
He said: "I can confirm that he (Conradie) has been suspended from proceedings and has not been invited to the tournament."
Thomas also said that "a handful of others", taken to mean the executive committee, also had their invitations withdrawn.
The move came following a report into the matter by the IRB judicial officer Graeme Mew, who recommended the ban.
An appeal has been lodged and a decision is pending.
Conradie was accused by former NRU financial director Pieter Fick of selling on 280,000 ($563,490) euros worth of tickets at a 35 per cent profit.
Thomas said a number of tickets, not including those that have been given free to members of the Namibian team, have been revoked, a move that could fans, who have bought tickets from the NRU, in limbo.
Conradie claims Fick has a personal vendetta against him after he was asked to accept a different post at the NRU but chose instead to resign.
"He (Fick) came to provoke me at my office and I told him to get out. He was recording the whole conversation as I threatened that I would shoot him," Conradie told The Namibian.
"He laid a case of assault and I also laid a case of trespassing as he came into my office without permission."
Conradie said Fick wrote to the IRB accusing the NRU of several irregularities and financial mismanagement.
He admitted that monies were paid into a local law firm, of which he is a partner, but denied there were any irregularities or selling the tickets at a 35 per cent profit.
He also denied that the monies paid into the law firm had accumulated 6000 euros of interest.
Conradie said he would hold a press conference to explain the circumstances surrounding the selling of the World Cup tickets.
- AFP
