The Rugby Football Union’s interim chairman Bill Beaumont has come out fighting on behalf of the embattled chief executive, Bill Sweeney, writing a letter to urge the governing body’s members to vote against a resolution to remove Sweeney and taking aim at the “personal attack on one individual”.
When calling for the SGM, the rebels cited a number of reasons including the “negative reaction across stakeholders throughout the game” to the pay scandal, “significant concerns around good governance and effective checks and balances, the attempts of the RFU president Rob Udwin to brush off negative coverage as “media spinning” and “clickbait” and losses of around £130m over the past two World Cup cycles.
Sweeney will face a vote of no confidence on 27 March after more than 150 members – led by the Rugby Football Referees Union and the Championship clubs – triggered a special general meeting, calling for the removal of the chief executive.
The rebellion was sparked after it emerged in November that Sweeney was paid £1.1m, including a £358,000 long-term incentive plan bonus, while five other executive directors shared close to £1m amid 42 redundancies and the RFU’s record loss to reserves of £42m.
Beaumont, who was appointed on a temporary basis following the resignation of Tom Ilube, has warned – in a letter on behalf of the RFU’s board and seen by the Guardian – of the risk of “sending the union into paralysis and creating a leadership vacuum”.
