July 17, 2004

CEOs to be replaced by pro-team Tsar

Posted by Editor on July 17, 2004 10:27 AM | 5 comments | Print | E-mail author
The chief executives of Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Borders are to be replaced by a newly-created 'director of professional rugby', whose remit will cover all three sides and who will be charged with the successful franchising of the pro teams.

The plan is the brainchild of Phil Anderton, the recently appointed chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union.

The victims of yesterday's announcement are the pro team chief executives, David Jordan at Glasgow, Jim McKenzie at Edinburgh and Alastair Cranston at the Borders. They have been invited to apply for the new post which will also be advertised externally.

"As soon as the new person starts, these jobs will disappear and there will be appropriate redundancy packages," Anderton said.

He denied he was dissatisfied with the performance of the three chief executives but added: "If you look at the pro teams they don't justify having three fully funded chief executive officers, both in terms of their size and the amount of finance they generate. It's an inefficient way to run a business.

"This is something I've been wanting to do for a while. It will help us move away from centrally controlled teams and help us develop a franchise system."

You can read more in Graham Bean's Scotsman article here

Comments
Posted by Neil Stobie on July 17, 2004 11:30 AM | Reply to this comment

Three guys pay for the incompetence of the Murrayfield control freaks.

Posted by Phall on July 17, 2004 01:31 PM | Reply to this comment

I can't see how one man can work in the best interest of three competing teams.

Posted by Neil Stobie on July 17, 2004 03:18 PM | Reply to this comment

David Mackay, in this morning's "Herald", states the SRU had to accept the fact that the way it had been marketing rugby had not been very successful. That must have been why the man in charge of marketing was made Chief Executive of the SRU.

Posted by Vicki on July 18, 2004 07:33 PM | Reply to this comment

Not sure how one person can do the work of three, and have equal loyalty to all three teams? What happens when two of these teams play one another?

Posted by Highlandbrave75 on July 19, 2004 04:18 PM | Reply to this comment

We all know Scottish rugby is in bad way but this just goes to show that it's in a worse state than alot of people thought.

I can't honestly see three pro sides in Scotland staying much longer. The Celtic League may only be contested between Irish & Welsh sides soon.

From top to bottom the Celtic League situation in Scotland is a shambles, even down to the Television coverage.

Out the three countries Wales have a deal in place with the BBC & SC4 for a big number of live games, Ireland with Setanta for a big number of live games. Scotland well, we always have an hour's highlights programme on a Sunday, which may have some difficulty in getting highlights of some games involving our teams becaue of TV rights.

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