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The head of English rugby union faces a crunch vote on his future this week after a pay row exposed deep divisions over the state of the game’s finances and governance.
Members of the Rugby Football Union, which oversees both the professional and amateur games in England, have been called to a special general meeting on Thursday by a group agitating for the removal of RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney.
The Whole Game Union, which includes a referees union and more than 100 professional, semi-professional and amateur rugby clubs, has tabled a motion calling on the RFU board to replace Sweeney, who has led the RFU since 2019. The WGU failed in its efforts to add a further motion calling for the removal of the entire RFU board.
The WGU says the leadership of English rugby has become too focused on the performance of the national team and is failing to support the grassroots game, which is struggling with falling participation, increased bureaucracy and rising costs. Many clubs complain that their funding from the RFU has been cut significantly.
“It’s a real challenge every day to make rugby possible,” said Paddy McAlpine, chair of Chichester Rugby Club and co-chair of the WGU. “The health of English rugby has got to be measured differently than a good day out at Twickenham and England playing and winning. I think that they have lost sight of that.”
Simmering discontent with the RFU boiled over late last year after a £358,000 bonus took Sweeney’s annual pay to £1.1mn, during a period when the RFU reported record losses of £37.9mn and made dozens of people redundant.
Anger among RFU members led to the departure of Tom Ilube as chair in December. His replacement, Sir Bill Beaumont, said in a letter to members last month that the WGU “do not represent the wider views of our game” and accused the rebel group of issuing “highly misleading statements” about the RFU.
He promised action on a range of issues, including governance reform, financial sustainability and investment in community club infrastructure.
The RFU says last year’s losses were due to the Rugby World Cup, which prevented it from staging more of the lucrative England fixtures in Twickenham that account for around 85 per cent of revenue.
Speaking last week on the Business of Sport podcast, Sweeney said he had lobbied to delay his bonus payment owing to the “horrendous” optics.
The RFU’s long-term incentive plan was agreed during the depths of the pandemic, partly to make up for temporary cuts to executive pay but also to ensure top officials remained in place during the organisation’s post-Covid recovery. The RFU commissioned an independent review of the incentive scheme by law firm Freshfields, which concluded that the bonus payments were appropriate but had been badly communicated.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Sweeney and other top RFU executives have been touring the country to meet hundreds of rugby clubs. They accept that the game’s governance structure does need change, but point to an internal review launched 14 months ago. At Thursday’s SGM the roughly 2,000 RFU members, made up largely of amateur and professional clubs, will also vote on a second motion tabled by the RFU to hand more power to regional bodies.
In defending its record, the RFU points to growing commercial income, such as a deal worth more than £100mn agreed last year with German insurer Allianz to rename English rugby’s national stadium in Twickenham. Sweeney said last week he was “really comfortable” with the RFU’s financial position, and that money would be available to “do what we want to do”. Critics say the RFU’s revenue growth targets are unrealistic.
The row within the RFU comes as the professional club game’s financial woes continue to mount. During the 2022/23 season, three out of 13 Premiership rugby clubs went bust, while a fourth — Newcastle Falcons — is seeking emergency funding.
All the clubs playing in English rugby union’s top tier are indebted and lossmaking. A report last year from accounting firm Leonard Curtis said that seven of the remaining 10 Premiership clubs were “balance sheet insolvent”, meaning they are reliant on wealthy owners for funding.
Both the RFU, through its share in Six Nations Rugby, and Premiership Rugby have investment deals with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.
