England's Rugby Football Union loses another Director
Peter Thomas, who joined Rugby Football Union (RFU) as the Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs in January 2009, has announced that he is stepping down from his office. The news of Peter’s departure was broken by Martyn Thomas through
written correspondence to the RFU writers’ club on July 26.
The statement read, “By mutual agreement Peter Thomas, currently corporate communications and public affairs director, will be leaving the RFU with immediate effect. There are no plans to replace Peter.”
The last two months have seen RFU in complete turmoil with positions going vacant in quick succession. RFU was already without a permanent chairman, chief executive, finance director or head of human resources and the chances of having a new performance
director also seemed slim. Adding to the gravity of the situation is the recent resignation from Peter.
RFU’s problems started off when John Steele, who was serving in the capacity of chief executive, was made to end his term with the Union. This led to an investigation undertaken by Jeff Blackett, the chief disciplinary officer of the RFU, into Steele’s recent
dissolution of contract.
This was closely followed by the resignation of Craig Preston as the Head of People Development at RFU. This came across as shocking news because Preston had accepted this capacity just three days ago.
When Blackett had completed his investigation pertaining to Steele’s case, he disclosed a detailed report which heavily criticised Martyn’s role in ousting Steele from RFU. The 52-page long report had led to the immediate withdrawal of Martyn from the Chairmanship
of RFU along with eight other non-executives from the RFU board.
In lieu of Blackett’s report, Martyn had taken up as acting chief executive and will be shouldering responsibilities in the Rugby World Cup 2015 (RWC 2015) board, putting aside criticism hurled at him in the infamous report.
When Martyn stood down from the Chairmanship of RFU, he stated, “The most important thing was that we maintained stability for staff and our other partners and in the coming weeks I will be ensuring that we navigate to calmer waters and that we can get on
with our core purpose of rugby.”
Until the new appointment for RFU Chairman is not made, Paul Murphy, the future RFU president, will fill the position temporarily. The permanent appointment is expected to be made by October.
However, in response to Blackett’s report, Martyn had threatened to take legal action against Blackett if he publishes the report because that will be perceived as an act of defamation by Martyn.
Judge Blackett, who himself is now reconsidering the continuation of his office as the chief disciplinary officer of the RFU, is upset with the current situation within the RFU board. With the upheaval within the RFU board, everything seems to be in complete
disarray.
The turmoil at Twickenham has been further aggravated with Peter stepping down from his office just ahead of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) in September.
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