RFU’s annual report shows a worrying decline. Has it lost its purpose? | Gerard Meagher

Beneath headline figures of the chief executive’s bumper income, what does the RFU stand for and want to achieve?

There have been suggestions in recent years, little more than rumours – though plenty of them – that the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, might have been preparing his exit strategy. That finding a replacement for Eddie Jones could be his parting gift, that negotiating the new eight-year agreement with the Premiership could be his intended legacy. Eventually the whispers grew loud enough that Sweeney publicly denied it and, after it emerged on Monday he was paid £1.1m thanks to the maturation of a bonus three years in the making, we appear to have a pretty good idea as to why.

The first thing to say about Sweeney’s eye-watering raise – a performance-based payment of £358,000 on top of a base salary of £742,000 – is that you can hardly blame him for taking it. Admittedly, he will have likely negotiated the details of the long-term incentive plan that has so lined his pockets but would you really expect him to turn it down? The blame lies with the RFU’s board and remuneration committee for signing off on a scheme that has made Sweeney the best-paid chief executive of a UK sports governing body – excluding payouts – at a time when 42 redundancies have just been made and a loss to reserves of £42m has just been announced.

Topics

Super Micro still can’t say when it will file annual report, and its stock drops
Business - MarketWatch - November 6
Impeachment has lost its ‘utility’ to act as a check on the president, says House Democrat
Politics - NBC News - 11 hours ago
‘I was a coke fiend, I made a lot of bad choices’: Garrett Morris on SNL’s early days – and how the show lost its courage
World - The Guardian - October 31
Meta Permits Its A.I. Models to Be Used for U.S. Military Purposes
Tech - The New York Times - November 5
The UAE opens its annual oil-and-gas summit, pledging to increase output
World - ABC News - November 4
OBITUARY: ‘Canada has lost a giant’
World - Yahoo News - November 4
How worried should stock-market investors be about a ‘lost decade’?
Business - MarketWatch - October 28
The truth is out there: Pentagon's annual report reveals hundreds of new UFO sightings
Top stories - NBC News - November 15
Evening Report — Legacy media grapples with declining influence
Politics - The Hill - November 8

RFU’s annual report shows a worrying decline. Has it lost its purpose? | Gerard Meagher

Topics

Related

Super Micro still can’t say when it will file annual report, and its stock drops

Impeachment has lost its ‘utility’ to act as a check on the president, says House Democrat

‘I was a coke fiend, I made a lot of bad choices’: Garrett Morris on SNL’s early days – and how the show lost its courage

Meta Permits Its A.I. Models to Be Used for U.S. Military Purposes

The UAE opens its annual oil-and-gas summit, pledging to increase output

OBITUARY: ‘Canada has lost a giant’

How worried should stock-market investors be about a ‘lost decade’?

The truth is out there: Pentagon's annual report reveals hundreds of new UFO sightings

Evening Report — Legacy media grapples with declining influence

More from The Guardian

Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire appears to hold – Middle East crisis live

Trump announces more picks including US trade chief and health deputy

British mother of Egyptian political prisoner to press Lammy to take action

Seoul slows down under blanket of heaviest November snow in 100 years

Bolsonaro allies nearly launched military coup in 2022, police report says