Ritchie gets even richer thanks to RFU pay

“The RFU are paying City-style salaries to their executives, with Ritchie’s £700,000 a year the most glaring”

IAN Ritchie’s sudden announcement that he is leaving his £700,000 a year post as the RFU’s chief executive this summer after five years was a bolt from the blue for English rugby’s governing body. The timing of Ritchie’s decision to head off on the Yellow Brick Road to retirement midway between World Cups is not ideal, because as he debates how best to spend his sumptuous stash he leaves his Wizard of Oz, Eddie Jones, alone at the sharp end.

It might be purely coincidental that Ritchie’s decision coincided with England finding themselves in another ‘pool of death’ alongside France and Argentina following last week’s 2019 World Cup draw, mirroring the position they were in alongside Wales and Australia in the 2015 tournament. Or perhaps the scars that left on the outgoing chief executive have barely healed.

Having belatedly made the decision to appoint a coach Eddie Jones’s calibre – and reaped the rewards in terms of England success with 16 wins out of 17 over the last two seasons – there is a sense that Ritchie is leaving midway through an important project which he initiated. Namely, to win the World Cup again.

It was Ritchie who hot-footed it to Cape Town to persuade Jones to take the England job, and presumably to agree the terms and conditions of that role. It is a given that the international shop window of the game is crucial to Rugby Union’s growth and success in England, and therefore that Ritchie’s departure midway through Jones’ bid to win the World Cup could be disruptive if he does not have the same understanding with his successor.

Few of us need reminding that England’s failure to reach the knockout stages of the 2015 World Cup on Ritchie’s watch had important repercussions. Rather than skyrocketing the game into a new orbit in terms of public consciousness and the feelgood factor generated around a successful England team, it fell flat.

Ritchie carried significant responsibility for the hosts being absent at the climax of their own party. This was because he ignored advice that Stuart Lancaster lacked the track record and experience to be made England head coach. Instead, taking his cue from RFU high-performance mandarins with a vested interest in promoting Lancaster, he went ahead with the appointment.

The rest is history…however, having lived through one World Cup implosion – which he described this week as “horrendous” – Richie has clearly made the decision that he does not want to stick around for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

The suggestion is that Ritchie did not want to leave after the 2019 World Cup, because it would also coincide with Jones’ departure. Yet, there is a strong argument that it would have been far better for them to have seen the project through together, with the RFU fully aware they would have two crucial roles to fill at the end of it – and plenty of time to prepare.

Ritchie said this week that he leaves the English game in “a very strong place”, and in some respects that claim stacks up. In others it is less accurate.

On the credit side Ritchie leaves with the RFU’s finances in robust health following the 2015 World Cup. Even though England failed to rise to the occasion on the field, the commercial and organisational delivery of the tournament was a resounding success, helping to generate record revenues of £407m for the RFU.

This included £228m of 2015 World Cup revenue, allowing the RFU to invest £90m in English rugby during the four-year period from 2012-16. Despite the high level of investment and costs the RFU were still able to post a profit of £4m last year.

The course for this financial success was plotted mainly by Stephen Brown, the RFU finance director during Ritchie’s tenure in office, and with the search for a new chief executive underway, Brown is in a strong position.

If Ritchie can count financial successes as part of his legacy, another element is stability. When he took over as chief executive late in 2011 the RFU had been riven by a power struggle. Despite agreeing that he lacked a detailed knowledge of Rugby Union’s playing culture, Ritchie’s urbane manner, upbeat disposition, and skill as a negotiator helped to heal the rifts.

The former chief executive of Wimbledon tennis has also had his boardroom successes in rugby. Ritchie was instrumental in brokering a settlement to the European club rugby dispute in 2014, which saw him support the English clubs bid for a new European Cup format and led to the creation of European Professional Club Rugby. He also played a key role in delivering the £200m eightyear deal with the Premiership last summer which produced record funding for England’s elite professional clubs.

However, there is a sense among grass roots/community clubs that he has been too preoccupied with commercial success and funding the elite end of the game at their expense. There are also unresolved issues around the financing of the second professional tier, with the financial gulf between Premiership and the Championship clubs becoming a chasm, as well as the thorny issue of unequal funding even when clubs are promoted.

Last but not least, there is the question of the City-style salaries that the RFU are paying their executives, with Ritchie’s £700,000 a year the most glaring. The RFU’s core business is built on international gates – which bring in c.£8m per match – and the lucrative sponsorship that surrounds them. The current crop of RFU executives are not responsible for creating that cash cow, and therefore should not be paid the sort of salaries that exist elsewhere in the banking/commercial world.

Ritchie said this week he is stepping down because, “the golf course beckons”. On the sort of salary he has been paid it would be entirely feasible that the golf course in question is already in his back garden.