RFU to make more than 40 staff redundant weeks after new £100m Twickenham deal

The Rugby Football Union will make more than 40 redundancies in a mass restructure as chief executive Bill Sweeney defended the £100 million deal for Twickenham to be renamed as Allianz Stadium.

Just a month after the RFU unveiled the deal with the German insurance giant, governing-body employees were gathered on a call at 4pm on Monday and informed that between 40 and 45 roles would be affected in a restructure, the third of its kind in six years at the home of English rugby.

Sixty-four employees will be “at risk” with 22 new roles created, with the RFU “anticipating” around 42 redundancies. Those in peril will learn if they are at risk on Monday evening, with the departures finalised by the end of October.

It is thought that the “rugby development” sector of the company will not be affected, nor the senior men’s set-up, the Red Roses or any of the age-grade teams - all other staff at Twickenham are in jeopardy, with business operational roles the most in danger. “The place is riddled with those,” said an inside source.

This afternoon’s call, coming less than a week after the RFU and Premiership Rugby announced a £264m Professional Game Partnership for the next eight years, was led by Sweeney, as well as Sue Day, the outgoing chief financial officer, and the governing body’s head of Human Resources, Paula Grant. Sweeney received a £16,000 pay-rise for the 2022-23 financial year, with the chief executive’s salary increasing from £668k in the 2021-22 financial year to £684k. The RFU’s 2023-24 report is due out later this year.

The RFU currently has 574 full-time staff members, split between three sectors: Rugby Development, Stadium, Commercial and Administration and Professional Rugby. The proposed changes affect those in the latter two areas, around 300 employees. In 2018, the RFU made 60 employees redundant as it downsized following the hosting of the 2015 men’s World Cup. In 2020, the same number of people were let go at Twickenham with the Covid pandemic causing short-term revenue losses of up to £107 million.

In a stormy financial period for English rugby’s governing body, Telegraph Sport understands that Sarah Williams, finance director, resigned last week, following Day out of the Twickenham door. When the RFU last month revealed that Twickenham would be changing its name to the Allianz Stadium, it pledged to invest further in the sport’s grass-roots. That same stadium is due to undergo a £663 million refurbishment, provisionally slated for the 2027/28 season.

‘Twickenham name change right for rugby’

Twickenham will host its first match since the Allianz rebranding this Saturday when the Red Roses face the Black Ferns. Regarding the naming-rights deal, Sweeney admitted that it would take time to adjust to the renaming of Twickenham, the world’s most iconic rugby stadium, after 125 years.

“I think it’s really encouraging for the game when you have a company like them investing in rugby union in England,” said Sweeney.

“They have branding naming rights across seven other stadiums around the world, they are passionate about rugby from the top down, they’ve got experience in stadium redevelopment so that helps us for our plans for Twickenham going forward from 2027 and they are providing a significant investment over a multi-year period which is coming into the game.

“They’ve been very clear from the outset that they want to see a certain amount of that activity targeted at the community game, so they’re very interested in the continued health of the community club network. There’s a danger of thinking that it’s a silver bullet and it fixes everything. We did make certain assumptions about that money coming in when we first started off the negotiations. But it certainly helps us to fund the PGP but also some of the other negotiations we have to do.”

The branding on the stadium has already been changed ahead of Saturday’s game, and the name has been changed on online mapping services such as Google as well as the stadium app.

The decision has faced criticism for not retaining “Twickenham” in the new name – Allianz also own the naming rights for stadiums in Munich, Sao Paulo and Sydney. But Sweeney said the RFU had taken the decision for the “right reasons”.

“You wouldn’t want to walk away from a very significant investment with a partner which shares similar values and similar passions for the game,” he added. “Some of the challenges we had previously were, why didn’t we do it earlier? Why haven’t we had a naming-rights partner sooner? You can reel them all off. You all know the stadiums that have naming-rights partners.

“But it’s a good deal, a really good deal, good for the game. They’re doing it for the right reasons - the vast majority of the people we interact with understand it’s the right deal for the game. You’ll get certain resistance for traditional reasons, that’s wholly understandable, and there’ll be a period of time where it takes time to adjust.”

Regarding October’s planned redundancies, an RFU spokesperson told Telegraph Sport: “The RFU has started a collective consultation over proposals to reshape and resize the organisation to maintain investment in rugby.

“The reorganisation comes as the RFU moves forward with significant transformational projects including the Men’s Professional Game Partnership, the Community Game Future programme, Digital Transformation and investment in Women and Girls and the Stadium Masterplan.

“The RFU will protect headcount and investment in community rugby and the proposals will not have a direct impact on England Men, Red Roses or pathway performance teams.

“It is anticipated that the number of roles in the RFU will be reduced by 42, with 64 roles at risk, and 22 new roles created. The proposals are expected to be finalised at the end of October.”