Bill Sweeney, the besieged executive of the Rugby Football Union, insists he will not walk away from his role as he faces a special general meeting (SGM) amid the protracted fall-out from bonus payments at his organisation.

In an appearance on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast (listen below), Sweeney also claimed he had initially wanted to defer his own £358,000 bonus, which was announced amid a backdrop of redundancies at the RFU.

Having arrived in his current role in May 2019, Sweeney is facing widespread resentment from around the sport following a scandal that has already brought the resignation of Tom Ilube as RFU chairman.

Sweeney dismissed the suggestion that Ilube’s departure had undermined his own position, saying that the episode had been a “personal decision” for his former colleague.

An SGM is planned for the end of March, having been demanded by member clubs with the aim of removing Sweeney. It will be formally announced by Sir Bill Beaumont, the interim chair, in due course.

Even so, Sweeney remains defiant. He continued to defend the results of the RFU’s financial report, despite a loss to reserves of £37.9 million that has been attributed largely to a lack of home matches for England in a World Cup year.

Indeed, Sweeney said the financial landscape was “one of the things I’m most proud of” because the union now has “zero debt” as well as “£59 million of cash and £80 million of reserves”.

“I’ve definitely got the energy, [to carry on],” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby. “I mean, the easiest thing to do now would be walk away.

“The easiest thing to do now would be to say: ‘Right, I’ve had enough of this stuff. I’ve had enough of this political c--p that goes on. It’s worse than Succession. I’ve had enough of all that stuff. Why bother?’

“I can’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. It’s just unbearable to think I would just take that easy option out. We’ve got some great stuff that we’ve developed and we’re just starting to land into the game. I know what’s going on behind the scenes. I know who’s involved in it.

“So I’m not just going to walk away from those characters either. So I’m going to stick it out. If the board tells me to go, that’s fine. If they don’t tell me to go and they believe I’m doing a good job and I do believe I’m doing a good job, then I’ll stay.

“And if that means taking a load more stick and flack, then OK, I’ll stay. But then you’ve pointed out some of the things you’ve got to do better. You’ve pointed out how we’ve got to communicate better, be more transparent.”

Sweeney also detailed the calamitous communications mix-up over the lowering of the tackle height in January 2023, another episode that drew a widespread backlash, and explained that he would be going on a roadshow to regain trust ahead of the SGM.

“We’ve got a big job to do,” said Sweeney, who has been told by figures in the community game that the RFU council is no longer fit for purpose.

“I think when we go on the road, the worst thing we can do is have an evening somewhere in Yorkshire, and present for three hours. I think we’ve got to listen to what the grievances are.”

As the RFU board have done in meetings between the council and staff members, Sweeney justified the long-term incentive plan (LTIP) as a means of keeping together their executive after Covid. He did ask to defer it until 2025 or 2027, but said “the problem is once you’ve declared an incentive program like this, it’s stated in your annual reports and it was done previously and you accrue for it year after year.

“And even if it had been paid later, it still has to be announced and it still has to be taken in that year. So, that wouldn’t have changed the year it was taken.”

Sweeney’s LTIP bonus was awarded on the basis of hitting several markers, including the performance of senior teams, which hinged upon a blended percentage that was aided significantly by John Mitchell’s women’s side. That boosted his own salary to £1.1 million for 2023-24, and Sweeney hinted that a furious fall-out has not surprised him.

“I’ve been the beneficiary of an LTIP before,” he said. “There’s one at Adidas. It’s very, very different working in corporate than in sport. Sport is about emotion.

“It’s about how do you go to a club and you’re arguing about or not arguing, discussing travel funding at 250 quid and then I’ve got this bonus. So it’s one thing to be able to live and work with the LTIP in the corporate world. It’s very difficult in the sports world.

“But this was seen as an exceptional circumstance, which obviously it was. I can’t imagine it will be repeated ever unless we have another Covid and the board felt it was, and by and large it actually delivered what it needed to deliver.”

While he wanted to defer the LTIP, giving it up entirely was not considered. “No, you don’t have to take it,” Sweeney added. “I mean, it’s contractually available. If the RFU chose not to pay it, then it’s contractually promised to you.

“Now, I make my own payments to charity and I consider them to be personal. So, I think giving it all to charity, as a justification for why you’ve accepted the LTIP, I’m not sure that’s the right message.”