‘Don’t waste this opportunity’ plea to English rugby ahead of Judgement Day for RFU boss
Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union's chief executive.
English rugby’s community game has been urged not to “waste this opportunity” to remove Rugby Football Union boss Bill Sweeney from office on Thursday.
In an open statement four days ahead of the Special General Meeting at Twickenham, Nottingham chairman Alistair Bow issued a battle cry aimed at reminding the game at large that the time for action has arrived.
“On Thursday, we have the moment for change and [to] finally say enough is enough,” said the co-chair of Whole Game Union, the organisation supporting a referees union and more than 150 dissident clubs that forced the RFU into convening the SGM.
‘Enough exclusion, enough failure without consequence’
“Enough exclusion, enough failure without consequence and enough leadership that silences dissent while claiming to listen.
“At this week’s SGM, we have offered members the first of what will be a few opportunities to vote for something that we, and other stakeholders, should have done back in 2022 and that’s vote for change.
“Please don’t waste this opportunity for the sake of our clubs and game futures.”
Sweeney has been in the cross hairs since it was revealed he received a £358,000 bonus, taking his annual pay to £1.1 million during a period when the RFU reported record losses of £37.9m.
Calls quickly followed for both his head and that of RFU chairman Tom Ilube. The latter tendered his resignation in December and was replaced on an interim basis by former World Rugby chair Sir Bill Beaumont.
Beaumont came out swinging, urging members to vote against the resolution to remove the CEO and blasting the “personal attack on one individual”.
Sweeney continues to fight for survival and that, combined with a letter Bow received from Beaumont which he says is “full of inaccurate facts and further peddling of misinformation”, has led the Nottingham man to step up the attack.
‘How long are you prepared to allow this to continue?’
“Our issues are not just with those personnel who have let us all down so badly, but also with process for decision making,” added Bow. “My question to all stakeholders is how long are you prepared to continue in letting these severe failures within our game continue?
“I’m sorry, but if anyone thinks that we should keep the status quo and continue with the current CEO, board, and governance structure then we deserve everything that we have got and is yet to come.
“I don’t know of any organisation that rewards continuous failure in allowing those that have failed to take us through change.”
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Bow’s statement, entitled Defending Open Debate and Democracy – This is something that has not been happening in this process, does not take prisoners.
He claims RFU President Rob Udwin “should be ashamed” for having “verbally abused” Bow’s co-chair Adam White at a recent roadshow, adding Udwin “should be now standing aside from having any formal dealing with our SGM as he has clearly showed (sic) he is not impartial”.
The first of two motions up for vote on Thursday states, “It is resolved that the members have no confidence in the CEO (Mr Bill Sweeney) and call upon the RFU board of directors to terminate his employment at the RFU as soon as practicably possible.”
Sweeney, who ahead of the SGM has visited clubs across the country in an effort to unify the game, accepts the governance structure does need to change.
But the RFU cites growing commercial income, including the £100m-plus deal agreed with German insurer Allianz for naming rights to rename Twickenham stadium, as evidence of an organisation seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Bow concludes: “Whatever the outcome on Thursday, we will only have just begun, with a second motion to be tabled for the no-confidence in the Board over the coming days, and then going for full governance changes delivering structural reform at the coming Annual General Meeting.”
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