Sir Bill Beaumont has called on RFU members to unite and reject a vote of no confidence in the chief executive, Bill Sweeney, at a special general meeting to be held at Twickenham on Thursday.
In a strongly worded statement, the interim RFU chair called on the clubs to end “months of rancour” by backing Sweeney, although his words appear to have fallen on closed ears as representatives of the Whole Game Union (WGU), who are leading the calls for change, immediately hit back with criticism of the RFU’s “intransigence”.
More than 150 clubs called on Sweeney to resign after the revelation that he received a £358,000 bonus last year, taking his overall remuneration to £1.1m, despite the RFU posting operating losses of £37.9m.
A motion of no confidence in Sweeney and proposal for the RFU directors to terminate his contract was put forward by the Rugby Football Referees’ Union in January. The vote will take place after a hybrid meeting, with some expected to attend online.
Beaumont, who was parachuted into the RFU on a temporary basis after Tom Ilube resigned in December, and the rest of the board have backed Sweeney throughout. With such a large electorate and the turnout uncertain, the outcome of the RFU’s first SGM for 25 years is impossible to predict.
Sweeney has made it clear he will not resign and he is unlikely to be sacked immediately even if he suffers a humiliating defeat. In that event, the RFU would call an emergency board meeting for Friday to decide on their next steps.
The SGM will be opened by the RFU president, Rob Udwin, before the motion is introduced by Paddy McAlpine, chair of Chichester RFC and one of four co-chairs of WGU, a rebel alliance of clubs from the Championship down to grassroots leagues.
A counter resolution from the RFU board has also been tabled seeking members’ approval of “the acceleration” of a review of governance and representation that was started last May by Malcolm Wharton, a former member of the RFU council and RFU board. The governance review will recommend devolving more decision-making to local and regional bodies to counter accusations of the SGM simply ratifying the status quo.
“The first motion arose because a number of members clearly felt frustrated by the challenges they are seeing around the game and because they believed that forcing our CEO out would help change that,” Beaumont said. “While I do not doubt their concern, a vote of no confidence in our CEO will not change this for the better.
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“The reality is that it will simply delay the opportunity the RFU wants to take to continue to make the changes we know members want to see. Voting against the first motion this Thursday will allow us to get on with this job and not spend months consumed by the rancour and disruption that this process has brought.”
The WGU immediately responded by claiming that the RFU board are not suitable leaders for the sport. “The rancour and disruption to the game has only been caused by the intransigence of the executive and board and their unwillingness to listen to and hear the issues raised over several years by participants, member clubs and referees’ societies,” it said. “Despite offers to engage and work on a way forward, the board and senior executive have refused to do so, which illustrates their unsuitability to lead our game.
“This vote for change is asking the board to remove our CEO through a managed process. Let’s not forget that our past chair did the right thing and resigned rather than waiting for a special general meeting or annual general meeting forcing him to go.
“Regardless of the result, we have highlighted to the rugby world what is going on within the inner corridors of Twickenham and that is a big step forward with clubs engaging in how the future may look. No one wins today as the game has already lost so much after successive boards’ failure through lack of direction and poor leadership.”
