Grassroots rebellion over executive pay has now seen the chair of the RFU board stand down – how did it come to this?

When the Rugby Football Union published its annual report at the end of November, on the back of a lacklustre autumn campaign for England, it emerged the chief executive, Bill Sweeney, was paid £1.1m for the year ending June 2024, which included a one-off £358,000 bonus as part of a long-term incentive plan (LTIP) scheme. It also emerged five other executive directors shared a bonus of close to £1m while the annual report showed record losses to reserves of £42m. In the ensuing weeks the calls for the chairman, Tom Ilube, and Sweeney to go have grown louder across all levels of the English game.