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Fresh from earning £933,000 last year, SRU boss Dodson only agrees pandemic pay deferral and not a cut
By Online Editors
Controversial CEO Mark Dodson will likely cause yet more anger among Scottish rugby’s rank and file after only agreeing to a pay deferral - rather than an actual pay cut - as the sport in Scotland tries to get to grips with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
There was a sizable backlash in the Scottish rugby community after The Offside Line revealed in January the staggering salaries paid to Scottish Rugby Union executives.
Anger gripped Scotland in January after the revelation of what the SRU’s top executive was paid
The website reported that the highest-paid executive – which is usually the chief executive, in this instance Dodson – received £933,000 for the year up to May 31, 2019, which was double his previous year’s earnings of £455,000. The fees and salaries for all the company directors also jumped from £1.13m to £2.246m.
The revelation caused a huge storm, with journalists and fans alike expressing outrage on social media at these findings and dissecting the situation Scottish rugby found itself in.
Those critics are unlikely to be placated by the latest development which took place at a Scottish Rugby board conference call last Friday - a decision for Dodson to take a 30 per cent salary deferral from April 1 to September 1, and a 25 per cent salary/fees deferral for the same period for the executive and non-executive directors.
Additionally, the country’s three main head coaches Gregor Townsend (Scotland), Richard Cockerill (Edinburgh) and Dave Rennie (Glasgow Warriors) also agreed to a 25 per cent salary deferral alongside Jim Mallinder, the director of performance rugby, for the same period.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the SRU stated: “The welfare of all our staff, clubs and players were top of the agenda and a full discussion held on the steps put in place to ensure they are all supported at this difficult time.
“It was noted that significant and detailed work is also on-going, at a pace, to review the considerable financial impacts on Scottish Rugby and the game in Scotland at all levels in respect of Covid-19... these initial steps and other steps will be reviewed ongoing in light of the challenge the sport faces.”
Colin Grassie, chairman of the Scottish Rugby board, added: “We are working extremely hard to navigate the sport of rugby in Scotland through these extremely challenging times. We would like to thank all our staff, sponsors, stakeholders for their support and collaboration.
“We have a huge challenge ahead of us, but we will get there together and we will leave no stone left unturned to ensure the long term sustainability of Scottish Rugby and the sport in Scotland.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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