Chief Executive’s
Operational Review
The RFU recorded a £1.5m profit after tax,
improved our net worth from £135m to £142m
and strengthened the balance sheet
Rugby World Cup years are always financially challenging for England and other northern hemisphere Unions. We all lose ticket revenue from our three autumn internationals, while simultaneously meeting the greatly increased costs of participating in the RWC tournament.
Notwithstanding this, I am pleased to report that the RFU still recorded a £1.5m profit after tax; improved our net worth from £135 million to £142 million and strengthened the balance sheet.
Managing the Union as far as possible to PLC standards and diversifying to take in new business generated by the development of the South Stand and subsidiary companies and joint ventures, such as the London Marriott Hotel Twickenham and England Rugby Travel, continues to help us build for future years and to support the game at every level.
I reported in last year’s Annual Report the amount of time and effort that had gone into the difficult negotiations then ongoing to reach agreement with Premier Rugby Ltd (PRL). We finally got there in September with both sides moving away from some of the entrenched positions established over the previous ten years of disputes.
The new agreement delivers fundamental changes to the way the elite players are managed and the England team prepared. We now have three Elite Player Squads (EPS) of 32 players each: the Senior squad, the Saxons squad and the U20 squad. For the first time all EPS players have to sign an RFU agreement. The England team management now has control over the players for two weeks before the autumn internationals and Six Nations as well as throughout the international windows. There is a medical protocol giving the Elite Rugby Director the final decision
on when an EPS player can play for his club and there are clear commitments to improved player welfare and the development of young players.
But the agreement is not one sided. The RFU will provide significantly enhanced funding to clubs for the additional control it now has over the elite players. This gives our clubs long-term certainty over their funding. We have also fixed the structured season for five years giving our clubs planning certainty for their businesses.
We all know how important the England
team is to the finances and success of our
game and the achievement of all our plans
at all levels.
It has been a strange year for England. Getting to a second successive RWC final and narrowly losing and finishing second in the Six Nations could not be described as a bad year. However, our performances have been very inconsistent and there has been a general feeling we could and should have done better. We took the decision to strengthen our team management structure after the Six Nations this year with the appointment of Martin Johnson as England Team Manager and the recent appointment of Brian Smith as Attack Coach. We have high hopes of this new management and coaching team. Martin has been given the full support and backing of the Management Board enabling him to make the changes he requires to get England back to the top on a consistent basis.
Brian Ashton MBE was offered a new position as Head Coach of the National Academy. After a period of consideration he decided to develop his own company (SCD South West Ltd). I am glad to report that the RFU has entered into a consultancy agreement with Brian’s new company under which Brian will provide the RFU with an agreed number of days each year.
Francis Baron