Thisishow rugby can be saved from peril
Nick Cain conducts a compelling interview with the man who was the most powerful figure in English rugby
FRANCIS Baron, acknowledged widely as English rugby’s most successful administrator of the professional era, says the RFU requires an urgent reset to put its house in order.
Baron believes there is a huge amount of work to be done if the RFU is to arrest a serious slide into debt, which in 2019/20 was over £250m.
Baron has spoken out because he feels he has a responsibility to the game as a former chief executive of 12 years standing (1998-2010), “to advise and warn when unexplained and worrying financial trends develop and appear to be unaddressed”.
He says the RFU member clubs, “have a right to know the extent of the financial problems the Union is facing, how the RFU has got itself into this
position, and how to get out of it”.
Baron, who is concerned by the erosion of democracy in the RFU administration – as well as a sharp decline in the PLC standards he introduced – says: “We are a democratic sport, and these issues need open debate and discussion.”
In the first of a series of exclusive interviews with The Rugby Paper, Baron highlights his concerns with potentially damaging and divisive issues facing the English game, with the promotion-relegation ringfence, the slashing of Community rugby funding, and the arrival of private equity investors CVC as shareholders, at the top of the list.
Baron warns that, “automatic promotion and relegation is essential at all levels in the game”, and reasserts his belief that the role of the RFU is not to provide for “investor protection” in the sport.
He adds, “at professional level rugby is a sport first, and a business second. If we do not get the rugby decisions right there is no basis for sound business”.
Baron says of the recent fan rebellion against the European Super League in football:
“There are lessons from the debacle for the RFU, and other sports, if they fail to involve their membership and supporters in key policy decisions.”
FRANCIS Baron says the RFU requires an urgent post-Covid reset. And when someone of Baron’s status in the English game issues a warning of such magnitude he has earned the right to be heard.
Baron is one of the most effective administrators to serve the RFU, which he did as chief executive in a period of sustained success in all areas of the game in England from 1998 to 2011, including the 2003 World Cup-winning campaign, World Cup runners-up in 2007, and successfully bidding to secure the rights to hold the 2015 World Cup in England.
He was awarded the OBE in 2004 and the CBE in 2011 for services to Rugby Union.
Baron’s template transformed the RFU, turning an operating loss of £2.6m in 1997 to an operating profit of £31.3m in 2009. He was also responsible for the £145m commercial development of Twickenham’s South Stand, including the Marriott Hotel, Virgin Active leisure club, and conferencing, banqueting and hospitality facilities.
Many then considered the RFU to be the ‘financial powerhouse’ of world rugby. This was made possible by Baron’s introduction of sound financial management – founded on a number of ‘Financial Golden Rules’ – and a series of clear strategic plans based on PLC standards.
It meant that the administration’s performance could be measured against clear goals, and that it was held to account democratically by the RFU Board and Council, elected by the English Union’s member clubs. Over the last decade Baron has watched the erosion of these core principles with growing concern after witnessing the RFU’s financial decline, and a culture of increasingly non-accountable governance, taking root.
It has led to a growing disconnect between grassroots clubs and Twickenham. Baron believes that maintaining a strong and interactive relationship with community clubs, who are the RFU’s shareholders, is essential, and it was why during his tenure Baron visited over 400 of them as part of RFU weekend roadshows.
He would visit five or six clubs from Friday to Sunday six times a year, and says the decision by some of his successors to discontinue the practice has been “a massive mistake”.
Baron says: “I learned more from a weekend at clubs in, for example, Gloucestershire, than in a year sitting at Twickenham. You need that face-toface contact. You hear about participation, pitches, clubhouses – all the issues at the coal-face. If you don’t do it you are not doing your job properly.”
Baron believes it would also be wrong not to address the powderkeg issues facing the game in England, with promotion-relegation ring-fencing, the arrival of private equity investors CVC, the RFU’s deeply worrying level of debt, and the slashing of community rugby funding, at the top of the agenda.
Baron reveals here, in the first of an exclusive three-part series of interviews with The Rugby Paper, why he is advocating a fundamental RFU Reset – and why the Covid pandemic has presented the English governing body with an opportunity for a positive reappraisal of its policies and direction.
Baron explains: “I am no longer an RFU member – just a passionate touchline supporter. As I said in the introduction to my 2019 (pre-Covid pandemic) RFU Financial Review Report: ‘While some may feel that a retired CEO should not get involved, I am passionate about the RFU and find it distressing to see it in such difficulties’.
“I believe I have a responsibility not only to the many friends and contacts I made in the game in my 12 years as CEO, but also to Board and Council members, to advise and warn when unexplained and worrying financial trends develop and appear to be unaddressed.
“It is often easier for an experienced external observer to separate the ‘wood from the trees’ – and RFU members have a right to know the extent of the financial problems their Union is facing, how the RFU has got itself into this position, and how it can get out of it. We are a democratic sport and these issues need open debate and discussion.
“By training I am a scientist (Masters in Mechanical Sciences, Cambridge University), and I look at hard facts before coming to conclusions which are based on clinical analysis as well as my long business experience in PLC companies. To assess the state of English rugby I have analysed the audited accounts of the RFU, WRU, SRU and IRFU for each of the years 2010 to 2019 and the RFU, sadly, does not compare well with any of our fellow Home Unions on the key financial metrics.
“I am not interested in personalities, just the performance of the bodies charged with the responsibility of managing the business, finance, and sporting affairs of the game.
“As CEO I managed the RFU through the 2008/09 global financial crash and subsequent deep economic recession. I know what it is like to manage a business through an externally created crisis.
“As a result, I have enormous sympathy and support for current CEO Bill Sweeney and financial director Sue Day so early in their careers. I have no doubt that they, and all RFU staff, have been working their butts off to help the game through the Covid crisis. Through no fault of their own they inherited a parlous prepandemic financial position in 2019 .
“I have been impressed by how the RFU and member clubs have stepped up to help in the national fight against Covid by making stadia available as testing centres and vaccination sites, and by supplying volunteer helpers to the NHS.
“It is still too early to assess the extent of the financial damage to the RFU and our member clubs from the deep recession caused by the Covid pandemic. It will be substantial. But we can bounce back and we will bounce back.
“Paradoxically, this crisis presents the RFU (and its new chairman shortly to take up office) with an opportunity, with light now appearing at the end of the long dark Covid tunnel, for a major and, I believe, necessary rethink of RFU priorities and policy direction – in modern parlance, ‘a reset’.