Francis Baron weary of ongoing crisis at Rugby Football Union - Rugby News
The former Chief Executive officer of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Francis Baron, has expressed his concern about the implications on future events. On July 14, Baron asked the governing body to overcome the leadership crisis as soon as possible or risk
loosing the confidence of other Rugby playing countries.
Baron told reporters that the inaction of the RFU in the face of the alarming situation could deprive England from hosting rights for Rugby World Cup 2015. As of now, RFU has failed to put a reliable person in the CEO seat since last year. Three people have
sat in the position in this short span of time.
The current crisis in Rugby Football Union has been created by the unexpected departure of John Steel, who said his farewell to the governing body after serving for only nine months in the office. He was succeeded by Martyn Thomas, who faced an inquiry by
Judge Jeff Blackett. In his report, Jeff Blackett suggested RFU dissolve whole acting body of the union except for Bill Beaumont.
Although RFU blocked the release of the damaging Jeff Blackett report, Martyn Thomas left the chairmanship of the union and started acting as stand-in chief executive of the board.
The current cloudy situation is not acceptable for the former chief executive of RFU, Francis Baron, and he has asked the union to resolve the issue immediately. He added that, “The board is in a state of total denial. Nobody is accepting responsibility.
When there is a horrendous sequence of events on your watch, then you do the honourable thing. I left a financially strong and healthy union. We were operating to high standards of governance. And we had a strong and stable professional management team.”
He further said that the current mismanagement could have a negative impact on England as for as other countries are concerned. He argued that, “They must be thinking that England's governing body can't manage its own business and will be worried about risking
the RFU managing the 2015 tournament. That would be horrendous.”
Rugby World Cup 2015 is scheduled to be played on English soil from September 4 to October 17.
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