Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, and chairman Tom Ilube have been told their positions are “not tenable” after reporting significant pay rises in a year dogged by redundancies, financial losses and England defeats.
Francis Baron, the RFU’s chief executive between 1998 and 2010, has joined a fierce backlash to news of Sweeney’s £1.1 million salary.
The RFU on Monday announced an operating loss of £37.9 million, with an underlying loss to reserves of £34.4 million, in its annual report for the 2023-24 season. That report included details of Sweeney’s increased salary of £1.1 million, made up of an 8.5 per cent pay rise from £684,000 to £742,000, plus a one-off performance-based payment of £358,000.
The report also revealed an 11 per cent increase for Ilube in his position as chair.
“I’ve been in business a long, long time, and I’ve never seen anything as worrying,” Baron told Telegraph Sport. “In the corporate world when you produce financial results like this, I’m terribly sorry, the chairman and the CEO do have to consider their positions. I personally believe their positions are not tenable.”
Regarding Sweeney’s pay, Baron added: “The point about this is to me, as a longstanding businessman, is that in effect he had a 61 per cent increase in the year that we lost tens of millions, which I think our member clubs, to put it politely, will be surprised if not angry with.
‘We are paying stellar salaries for junk-bond performance’
“I have no problem with these stellar salaries being paid to people who deliver stellar performance. The fact is, we are paying stellar salaries for junk-bond performance. I have no doubt from just looking at my inbox that the member clubs are not going to accept this, and understandably so.”
The increases also come at a time when Steve Borthwick’s England team have lost seven of their 12 Tests in 2024, putting additional pressure on Sweeney in his position above the head coach.
Baron has also taken issue with the figures published by the RFU, disputing its claim of having no long-term debt.
“The RFU has long-term debt, they’re called debentures. The long-term debt has increased from £221 million in the previous year to £237 million in the reported year, so it’s just not correct to say the RFU has no debt and I’m amazed that statement was made.”
Adding that he had “never seen so many emails from around the rugby world who are so angry about the announcement, including a number of past presidents who are also very angry too”, Baron suggested that it would now be up to the “very concerned” RFU Council members he had heard from to “discharge their responsibilities” and to the hold the RFU board to account. “Basically, we can’t go on like this.”
TV revenues have fallen because of ‘disastrous deal’
Revenue has historically dipped during World Cup years, when the RFU host fewer home matches at Twickenham, with the governing body noting that the underlying loss for 2023-24 of £34.4 million was more than the loss of £27.1 million during the previous World Cup year in 2019-20, citing “inflationary cost increases and reduced Six Nations revenues from broadcast and sponsorship”.
Baron has publicly criticised the deal made between the Six Nations and CVC Capital Partners in the past, noting that the final instalment from the private equity company is due next year.
“The TV revenues alone have fallen by 21 per cent since 2019-20,” Baron said. “Now, why have they fallen 21 per cent over four years? You would expect a rise over four years. They have not risen because we sold 14.3 per cent of our TV rights to CVC under a deal which I’ve already said publicly was a disastrous deal.
‘You can’t sell your family silver and expect a good outcome’
“So we’ve sold our revenues to CVC and, unsurprisingly, we then have a big hit on our P&L [profit and loss] account. You can’t sell your family silver and expect a good outcome, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Throughout Monday evening and Tuesday, Baron said that he had received several emails from concerned clubs and former RFU presidents regarding Sweeney’s salary increase, while claiming that a shift from investing in the community game to focusing more on the professional level could have damaging ramifications.
Baron claimed the share of funding towards the community game, which he labelled “the bedrock, the base of the pyramid”, had dropped from 50 per cent when he was CEO, to around 30 per cent now.
“If you keep going on like this you are undermining the very base, the very foundation of the whole game, because if we don’t have a strong community game, strong participation, it’s going to be difficult to maintain a professional tier. We are now entering into that very dangerous and difficult territory. We are not being able to support our community game in the way we were able to.”
An RFU spokesperson told Telegraph Sport: “These views are from someone who has not been involved in the RFU for over 14 years. The opinions are out of date, out of touch and wrong. The RFU Board and Council have and will continue to be appraised with the facts around our financial performance, which is independently audited.”
