Anger grips Scotland after revelation that SRU's top executive was paid £933,000 last year
There has been a sizable backlash in the Scottish rugby community after The Offside Line revealed the staggering salaries paid to Scottish Rugby Union executives.
The website revealed that the highest-paid executive – which is usually the chief executive, in this instance Mark 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 jumped from £1.13m to £2.246m.
Journalists and fans alike have shown their outrage on social media at these findings and have begun to dissect the situation Scotland rugby finds itself in.
The Scottish Daily Mail’s Rob Robertson described the revelation as “appaling”, while The Times’ Alasdair Reid said the figures were particularly alarming given the current exodus of players from the Scottish game.
Owain Jones compared the controversy to the outcry when former Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie was paid £600k from a £207million turnover, which pales into insignificance compared to £933,000 the SRU gave its top executive from a turnover of £61.1m.
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Only last week it was announced that Jonny Gray will be leaving the Glasgow Warriors at the end of the season to join the Exeter Chiefs, a move that Stuart Hogg made last summer.
With Finn Russell having also left the Warriors to join France’s Racing 92 in 2018 as well as the imminent departure of Glasgow boss Dave Rennie to coach the Wallabies, the criticism of the SRU is that its money is not being spent to retain or bring in new players – and these findings about the CEO’s salary have proven to be incendiary.
This is appalling! THE highest paid executive in the Scottish Rugby Union – usually the Chief Executive (Mark Dodson) – received aggregate emoluments of £933k (before pension contributions), more than double the £455k earned the previous year. Well done @theoffsideline 4 story.
— Rob Robertson (@ROB_Robireland) January 14, 2020
The SRU annual report, given to member clubs, no longer reveals fees, salaries and benefits paid to its directors. However, they are obliged to do so in legal accounts lodged at Companies House. 1/3
— Alasdair Reid (@AlasdairReid3) January 14, 2020
These accounts show that fees and salaries paid to all directors almost doubled last year, from £1.13m in 2017-18 to to £2.25m in 2018-19. 2/3
— Alasdair Reid (@AlasdairReid3) January 14, 2020
My Lord, 933k for (almost certainly) Mark Dodson. I remember the outcry when it was announced Ian Ritchie was on 600k at the RFU when it had a £207m turnover after RWC 2015. The SRU's turnover was £61.1m in 2018-19. Can you explain, kind sir?
— Owain Jones (@OwainJTJones) January 14, 2020
The main criticism from fans seems to be that no Scottish team at any level has performed at a level that warranted such a pay rise for the senior members of the SRU.
The men’s team finished fifth in the 2019 Six Nations, and while the World Cup didn’t take place before the May 31 date in the SRU accounts, Scotland did themselves no favours in Japan, bowing out at the pool stages.
Ironically, it was actually during the RWC that Dodson’s comments regarding their potentially cancelled match against Japan during Typhoon Hagibis led to a £70,000 fine for Scottish Rugby.
https://twitter.com/Pugoramma/status/1217052039332737027?s=20
I know successful CEOs can receive big increases, but looking at Scotlands performance at the 6Ns and RWC, the U20s relegation to the second tier tournament, under investment in Glasgow and those comments at RWC Dodson hardly fits that bill.
— Doug the Prop??? (@DougProp) January 14, 2020
Rob, you need to write about this. This is a disgrace. The results of the Men's, Women's, 7s and u20s merit a formal warning, not a doubling of his salary.
— SyKoro72 (@sykoro72) January 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/scottbricknal/status/1217099507126755328?s=20
Jesus @Scotlandteam this is an absolute joke. More than £900k for a CEO??? Do you think you're a FTSE 100 company or something?? No wonder Glasgows top players keep leaving without being replaced, money shovelled into the trough for Dodson https://t.co/JK0KDXxeZD
— Niall Sommerville (@niall_som) January 14, 2020
Many fans have been piling into this discussion, which was always going to prove very controversial in light of performances over the past year, and this may only be the beginning of a long saga.
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments