The tone deaf decision that has plunged England’s Rugby Football Union into crisis

Uproar over the payment of a large bonus at a time of financial strife has imperiled chief executive Bill Sweeney

Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the RFU, is under fire (Getty)

It has been a week of uproar within English rugby union. Last Monday saw the publishing of a set of accounts and an annual report that have drawn ire and frustration at all levels within the game.

There are various strands at which to tug, but much of the furore has been related to the salary of one man. Bill Sweeney was appointed as chief executive of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in 2019, stepping in after his predecessor, Steve Brown, resigned following the reporting of a record loss amid widespread redundancies.

The latest accounts show a loss of nearly £40m, higher than during Brown’s tenure, while over 40 people were made redundant across the organisation mere months ago. Amid this landscape, Sweeney pocketed £1.1m, with a performance-based bonus of £358,000 accentuating an already swelling salary of £742,000.

There have been several rounds of redundancies at the Rugby Football Union (RFU) this year (Getty)

The headline figures come as part of a three-year Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) agreed upon by the organisation’s remuneration committee during the Covid pandemic. In that difficult time, Sweeney and other executives agreed to defer bonus payments for a period of three years, leading to a larger lump sum paid out in the 2023/24 financial year. A group of six individuals shared a bonus pot of £1.3m, while outgoing financial officer Sue Day was given what has been phrased as a “golden goodbye” payment having departed to take up a role at the Football Association (FA).

It is fair to question why these were ever offered, and certainly why they were accepted in a year where the broader economic picture is so concerning. Shorn of some of the Twickenham matchdays that make up more than 80 per cent of income, the RFU always forecasts a significant hit to finances in Rugby World Cup years – but a record loss only adds to the financial frets that grip much of professional rugby union.

The decision has been described as “tone deaf” by more than one source – and Sweeney’s bonus could even have been higher. Had he met 100 per cent of all targets, a figure of £462,000 would have been received; instead, Sweeney was paid 77.5 per cent of that total, with the criteria for his award split into five objectives, the final two of which were not achieved.

Bill Sweeney (right) oversees a sprawling organisation (Getty)

The censure has been sweeping and drawn from virtually all quarters, from current players to past chiefs. If figures like ex-CEO Francis Baron and past chair Graeme Cattermole have an axe to grind having been stripped of their complimentary tickets and hospitality at Twickenham Tests in 2018, more concerning for Sweeney and Tom Ilube, the current chair, is the strength of feeling within the current structure.

In a staff briefing on Monday, the Telegraph reported that Ilube explained that the RFU’s pay strategy had been recommended after a post-Covid review conducted by the American firm Pearl Meyer. He said that LTIPs were an important way of recognising that senior staff had taken a voluntary pay cut during the pandemic while taking on an “exceptional increase in workload”.

Insiders have suggested that while Sweeney’s underlying salary is large (and not far off double that which he received when taking the job), it is in line with a wide-reaching role. The RFU is a sprawling body with oversight of everything from a club’s under-10s right through to the fortunes of the senior men’s and women’s sides. Sweeney’s duties extend far beyond glad-handing and palm-pressing – he represents English rugby on boards for World Rugby, the British & Irish Lions and the Six Nations. This is, in these circles, a figure of some importance; it is little surprise that he is well remunerated.

England’s men have struggled on the field this year (David Davies/PA)

There has also been an element of personal criticism around some of the attacks on the embattled chief executive. Accusations of a figure looking down from an ivory tower are wide of the mark – Sweeney is a regular at recreational games and a genuine rugby fan. While the combining of men’s and women’s results has led some to suggest that the union is artificially creating a prettier picture of on-field fortunes, credit is warranted for building a Red Roses team that is challenging perceptions of women’s rugby and beginning to deliver financial reward, even if it remains a loss-making programme.

But the optics of accepting these bonuses could not be worse after such turbulent years that have seen several rounds of redundancies at the RFU. Lest we forget also that four professional clubs (Wasps, Worcester, London Irish and Jersey) have gone under in the last three years, leading Sweeney to be declared “asleep on the job” at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing late in 2022.

RFU chair Tom Ilube said the bonuses were due to executive staff taking a voluntary pay cut during Covid (RFU)

The RFU have gone to ground, refusing requests from the media for a briefing from senior executives to explain how and why such decisions were made, or provide further context for the significant loss. It may not help that the organisation’s director of communications – another to receive an LTIP bonus – is on her way out with no successor yet confirmed. The lack of communication is not necessarily new – while both Ilube and Sweeney are amiable speakers, opportunities to speak to them on the record are rare.

Ilube and Sweeney survived an attempted ousting in 2023, but morale in the ranks is low and another no-confidence vote could well come. It is hard to know what the future may hold. It is thought that, before her departure, Sweeney viewed Day as a possible successor, the former England captain blending top-level rugby experience with years of work at the financial coalface. A Women’s World Cup that England will be expected to win on home soil next summer would seem a natural exit point for a 67-year-old executive who works hard – during a spell in hospital after a pulmonary embolism in May 2022, it is said that Sweeney had to virtually have his work phone wrenched from him in order to ensure he recuperated as required.

What is clear, though, is that this has been another unedifying saga for a union that has got so many big decisions wrong recently. The rolling out of the tackle-height law trial in the community game was hopelessly mismanaged, while the recently-unveiled Professional Game Partnership (PGP) has not secured Steve Borthwick as much control over the Premiership players as the RFU might have hoped. Even the much-trumpeted, much-needed deal that saw Allianz take the naming rights to Twickenham is not as lucrative as first suggested, spread as it is over 13 years rather than the decade first reported. The turmoil and tumult is likely to continue.