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       #Post#: 130674--------------------------------------------------
       RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: DOK
       Date: November 25, 2024, 1:46 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Despite the losses, the RFU's overall performance has triggered
       a significant bonus for chief executive Bill Sweeney.
  HTML https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c8rl634z80no
       Could they really not have got someone with the same skills as
       Bill Sweeney (or better) for substantially less?
       #Post#: 130689--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: connaughtquin
       Date: November 26, 2024, 7:56 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       From the Guardian today :-
       "All aboard the gravy train
       When historians debate the exact moment that English rugby union
       ate itself they may well alight upon this week’s publication of
       the Rugby Football Union’s annual financial report. The loss to
       reserves in 2023-24 was £42m with an operating loss of £37.9m,
       the worst results in the RFU’s history. Trebles all round, then,
       at the news that chief executive Bill Sweeney’s annual
       remuneration has also hit an unprecedented peak of £1.1m, made
       up of a basic salary of £742,000 plus a “long-term incentive
       award” of £358,000. This in a year when jobs have been axed at
       Twickenham and heartfelt pleas to increase funding to hard-up
       Championship clubs, amongst others, have been resolutely
       ignored. At best tone deaf, at worst a crass V-sign to the rest
       of the game, it would normally be the signal for high-level
       resignations and a complete reset of the entire organisation’s
       priorities. Pending that newsflash, rumour has it Bisto now
       wants to sponsor Twickenham railway station. Because that’s
       where everyone jumps aboard the gravy train …"
       #Post#: 130692--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: A222Quin
       Date: November 26, 2024, 10:13 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Ahhh dear old LTIPs.... Even if he's entitled to it... the
       optics man, the optics!
       #Post#: 130693--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: Mayor West
       Date: November 26, 2024, 10:49 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       It’s not that bad, “Drastic Dave “ binned off 800 people at
       Tesco and got £5million a few years ago. Happens all the time.
       It looks terrible, sounds terrible and is terrible. These people
       have no conscience or moral responsibility. They say that it was
       the board that decided the remuneration package and not to do
       with them so that makes them all culpable. Obviously none of
       them said at the board meeting this looks bad, at the very least
       we could spread the ridiculous salaries and bonuses over the
       next few years. Reminds me of Gordon Taylor at the PFA.
       #Post#: 130714--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: Bod
       Date: November 27, 2024, 4:37 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://rugby365.com/countries/england/how-does-the-rfu-justify-this/
       "Sweeney isn’t on his own either as £554,000 was paid to Sue Day
       for her role as Chief Operating and Financial Officer during the
       2023/24 financial year.
       The bonus paid to Sweeney of £358,000 alone is over double the
       £150,000 that each Championship club gets each year in funding
       and the £1.1m package is around the same amount that they all
       get put together.
       Information from the union also states that Sweeney fully met
       his targets for financial performance and participation in
       community rugby for men, which might raise a few eyebrows. We
       don’t know what those targets were, though.
       He was also probably quite clever in combining the England men’s
       team win ratio with the women’s team, who have won 50 of their
       last 51 Tests, when it comes to his performance metrics!
       A part of me thinks he deserves a pat on the back for
       negotiating all this and I don’t think many people would turn
       down £1.1m if their employer offered it to them but what has he
       done to earn it? What were the financial performance targets
       that he has hit?
       I don’t know when we are next going to get the opportunity to
       hear from Sweeney or anyone in the upper echelons of the RFU,
       and I doubt they will be forthcoming with that information when
       we do, but just some details could help make it at least a tiny
       bit more palatable.
       After all, this is a man who was accused of being “asleep on the
       job” by Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair Julian
       Knight MP and whose handling of the tackle height saga in the
       grassroots game led to calls for a vote of no confidence.
       It would be good to know what Sweeney has done to deserve
       anywhere near £1.1m but I think the ire in this instance should
       be directed towards Yasmin Diamond, Phil de Glanville and Tom
       Ilube.
       They all sit on the remuneration committee and have overseen the
       increase in Sweeney’s salary, which has risen from £430,000 in
       2020, to make him the highest-paid executive in UK sport."
       Fricking leeches to lot of them!
       #Post#: 130750--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: RodneyRegis
       Date: November 27, 2024, 12:59 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Bod link ---
       >
       >
  HTML https://rugby365.com/countries/england/how-does-the-rfu-justify-this/
       >
       >
       >
       >
       > "Sweeney isn’t on his own either as £554,000 was paid to Sue
       Day for her role as Chief Operating and Financial Officer during
       the 2023/24 financial year.
       >
       > The bonus paid to Sweeney of £358,000 alone is over double the
       £150,000 that each Championship club gets each year in funding
       and the £1.1m package is around the same amount that they all
       get put together.
       >
       > Information from the union also states that Sweeney fully met
       his targets for financial performance and participation in
       community rugby for men, which might raise a few eyebrows. We
       don’t know what those targets were, though.
       >
       > He was also probably quite clever in combining the England
       men’s team win ratio with the women’s team, who have won 50 of
       their last 51 Tests, when it comes to his performance metrics!
       >
       > A part of me thinks he deserves a pat on the back for
       negotiating all this and I don’t think many people would turn
       down £1.1m if their employer offered it to them but what has he
       done to earn it? What were the financial performance targets
       that he has hit?
       >
       > I don’t know when we are next going to get the opportunity to
       hear from Sweeney or anyone in the upper echelons of the RFU,
       and I doubt they will be forthcoming with that information when
       we do, but just some details could help make it at least a tiny
       bit more palatable.
       >
       > After all, this is a man who was accused of being “asleep on
       the job” by Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair
       Julian Knight MP and whose handling of the tackle height saga in
       the grassroots game led to calls for a vote of no confidence.
       >
       > It would be good to know what Sweeney has done to deserve
       anywhere near £1.1m but I think the ire in this instance should
       be directed towards Yasmin Diamond, Phil de Glanville and Tom
       Ilube.
       >
       > They all sit on the remuneration committee and have overseen
       the increase in Sweeney’s salary, which has risen from £430,000
       in 2020, to make him the highest-paid executive in UK sport."
       >
       >
       > Fricking leeches to lot of them!
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       Well yeah, this is the point of an LTIP. Everyone entitled gets
       it, or nobody does.
       So of course everyone agrees they should get it.
       #Post#: 130754--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: Bod
       Date: November 27, 2024, 1:43 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Where's the Long Term element ?
       #Post#: 130974--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: Bod
       Date: December 3, 2024, 5:24 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       This gets better and better, for the RFU directors with their
       snouts in the trough!
  HTML https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/rfu-bonus-row-takes-fresh-twist-with-up-to-10-senior-leaders-also-involved/ar-AA1v82Bw?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=53acee87e7d54657bf87efaf3d348b9c&ei=6
       The bonus scandal engulfing the Rugby Football Union runs even
       deeper than first indicated, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
       The sport was rocked when the RFU’s accounts showed that chief
       executive Bill Sweeney was paid £1.1 million, including a bonus
       of £358,000, against a backdrop of 42 redundancies and a loss of
       £37.9 million.
       Telegraph Sport has now learnt that up to 10 members of the RFU
       senior leadership team – below the executive directors who were
       awarded the controversial long term incentive plan [LTIP]
       bonuses – were handed promotions to become directors and
       included on the directors’ bonus scheme that offers bonus
       payments of up to 25 per cent subject to targets being met.
       The RFU annual report for the 2022-23-year states “the
       remuneration committee reviewed and approved a new bonus scheme
       for leadership team members.”
       The RFU has insisted that no new bonus scheme has been put in
       place but it is understood that around nine members of the
       leadership team who were “heads of department” were promoted to
       become directors, resulting in the opportunity to earn
       significantly higher annual bonuses, despite the ongoing
       financial challenges that led to the raft of redundancies in
       September and the governing body recording a record deficit this
       year.
       Sweeney and members of the RFU executive addressed an emergency
       staff meeting on Monday but were later accused of giving
       “scripted” and “belligerent” answers to advance questions. They
       are now facing calls to resign.
       The summit began at 2pm with a 20-minute address from chair Tom
       Ilube, who sought to offer context to the bonus scheme that has
       drawn fury from all corners of the English game over the past
       week.
       Ilube is understood to have named consultancy Pearl Meyer, which
       has headquarters in Massachusetts, as the company that
       recommended the executive pay structure after an independent
       review in 2021.
       This process also saw five executive directors share almost £1
       million in additional bonuses. One source blasted the decision
       to hold a pay review in the first place.
       ‘No wonder people are so furious’
       “What other company in the UK would come out of the pandemic and
       with rugby union on its knees and think the first thing they
       needed to do was commission an American-based company to
       determine whether their executive directors were being paid
       enough?” the source said.
       “And guess what? The American-based company recommended they all
       get a huge new bonus. It is simply staggering. No wonder so many
       people are furious.”
       Full article in link
       Incredible !
       #Post#: 131049--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: Bod
       Date: December 4, 2024, 5:03 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       "Brinkhuis said the biggest sticking point for SWD is the huge
       commission – 15 per cent – which must be paid to Formula 1 team
       owner Eddie Jordan’s Jordan and Associates for putting the deal
       together.
       At the weekend, it was revealed that a group consisting of South
       Africa’s rugby power brokers have reportedly compiled a
       counteroffer to rival the ASG one and Brinkhuis said the new
       proposal gives his union financial guarantees."
       Interesting article regarding Bok Rugby funding from US
       investors
  HTML https://www.planetrugby.com/news/sa-rugbys-us-equity-deal-hangs-in-the-balance-as-president-hits-out-ahead-of-crucial-vote
       #Post#: 131085--------------------------------------------------
       Re: RFU defend bonus pay-outs after record £37.9m losses
   DIR By: DOK
       Date: December 5, 2024, 8:14 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Referees call for special general meeting over Bill Sweeney
       salary
  HTML https://archive.is/rfqS4
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