Something wrong in the state of Denmark?
Through my slight connections with those who have spent time in English rugby administration, I possess a degree of ‘insider knowledge’ upon what goes on in the Premiership and indeed at the Rugby Football Union.
Over the past four years I have often listened to the exasperation of a number of former RFU old sweats – in the 1900s, post Will Carling’s famous jibe, they’d have been filed under the heading “Old Farts” – at the recent goings-on within senior levels of the RFU. To be direct about it, alleged poor management and planning – particularly in the fields of politics/commerce and finance – and an apparent obsessive concentration upon the elite professional game, almost always at the direct expense of the wider community/grass roots element.
A month or so ago the rebel faction broke cover and – headed by a damning report upon the RFU prepared by former chairman Francis Baron – made their criticisms public.
Their thesis was that the RFU’s finances were a mess – the cost of the ‘corporate hospitality’ development of the north-east end of the Twickenham East Stand had over-shot its budget by double; the split between funding of the elite game and the grass roots had slipped from 50:50 to 65:35; RFU senior salaries were inflating exponentially; in essence, generally the RFU was bordering upon being out of control and ironically (for biggest generator of cash of any Union in the world) fast becoming financially incontinent. Hence the announcement of 60-plus redundancies at RFU HQ three months ago at a time when – if it had its act together – the RFU ought to have been flying high.
Things needed to be done!
Over the last month the RFU has been fighting back in the media – its line has been that Francis Baron’s report proved only that that he hadn’t got a clue what he was talking about. The world had moved on considerably since he left the RFU some five or so years ago. Everything was rosy and the RFU was even now sailing serenely and proudly into a bright new future.
Until yesterday, it seems.
Here’s a link to a report by Jack de Menezes that appears today upon the website of – THE INDEPENDENT
