RFU flog cheap houses

THE RFU cash crisis, which will result in a significant number of redundancies, has also seen them start to sell off their property portfolio of houses around Twickenham.

Rugby’s ruling body owned as many as 11 houses near the stadium, most of which they now want to sell, believing it to be financially prudent.

Four have already been sold and such seems to be the RFU rush to off-load that one of the houses in nearby Talma Gardens, a larger than average four-bedroom semi-detached property in good decorative order — on offer for £740,000 — was sold at auction for only £600,000.

An RFU spokeswoman said: ‘In recent years, we have sold properties we no longer have any use for.’ CIVIL service supremo Ian Watmore, who has been appointed an independent director of the Football League, walked out of his role as FA chief executive in 2010 after only nine months, exasperated at the way his reform plans were being blocked. So how long Watmore is prepared to put up with journeyman FL chief executive Shaun Harvey and his crew is anybody’s guess.