By Mitch Phillips
LONDON (Reuters) – Rugby Football Union CEO Bill Sweeney has defended his controversial pay package and said he had no intention of walking away from his position despite a pending general meeting called for by disgruntled clubs.
Annual accounts published in November showed Sweeney received pay of £1.1 million ($1.4 million) for the 2023‑24 financial year, comprising an increased salary of 742,000 pounds and a long-term incentive bonus of 358,000.
Further bonuses totalling around a million pounds were paid to five other executives even though the RFU reported a record operating loss of 37.9 million pounds and made scores of staff redundant.
The figures caused uproar throughout the game and the RFU will now hold a special general meeting after the Six Nations tournament, after more than 100 clubs and other bodies signed a letter demanding it.
Sweeney is holding a media briefing at Twickenham on Thursday, but told “The Good, The Bad and The Rugby” podcast he knew the incentive payment would be a “major problem” and wanted to defer it but was not able do due to accounting procedures.
“We didn’t request an LTIP (Long-Term Incentive Plan), we had no say in what the amount should be,” he said. “You don’t have to take it. It’s contractually available. I make my own payments to charity and I consider them to be personal. So, I think giving it all to charity, as a justification for why you’ve accepted the LTIP, I’m not sure that’s the right message.”
Asked about his future, he said: “I have definitely got the energy (to carry on). The easiest thing to do now would be to walk away. I’ve had enough of this political crap… it’s worse than (the TV series) ‘Succession’.
“I can’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. It’s just unbearable to think I would just take that easy option.
“If the board tells me to go, that’s fine. If they don’t tell me to go and they believe I’m doing a good job – and I do believe I’m doing a good job – then I’ll stay. And if that means taking a load more stick and flak, then OK, I’ll stay.”
RFU Chairman Tom Ilube stepped down last month but Sweeney said he did not know why and had not spoken to him.
Despite the losses, largely expected in a World Cup year when England miss out on three or four lucrative November internationals, Sweeney, who joined the RFU in 2019 after a successful period heading the British Olympic Association, said he was proud of the RFU having “zero debt and 59 million pounds of cash and 80 million of reserves”.
($1 = 0.8116 pounds)
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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