Long-serving former CEO Simon Cohen to sue Leicester Tigers
Simon Cohen is set to sue Leicester Tigers, the Gallagher Premiership club where he worked as CEO for eight years until his sudden May 2020 departure. The administrator, who had previously served another seven years in different roles, stepped up to become chief executive in 2012, one year before the club won its last Premiership title, but he was shown the door during the early months of the pandemic lockdown that delayed the completion of the 2019/20 season.
RugbyPass understands that the ex-Tigers CEO is set to appear in court this Monday in Leicester and is suing for unfair dismissal and for loss of earnings arising out of his exit from the club.
It was 22 months ago – May 11, 2020 – when it emerged via a Leicester Tigers statement that the club had parted company with Cohen amid a raft of on and off-field changes that included Steve Borthwick becoming head coach from July 1 that year.
A statement at that time stated: “Leicester Tigers announces the departure of Simon Cohen as chief executive and that, with immediate effect, Andrea Pinchen will be the club’s new chief executive, having previously been its chief operating officer.”
That Leicester media release was accompanied by quotes from chairman Peter Tom. He said: “Simon has served Tigers for 15 years, playing a vital role in the professionalisation of the club’s activities on and off the field.
“After many years of service and in the context of the challenges presented by Covid-19, Simon and the board agreed now was the right time for him to step down as chief executive. We thank him for his contribution and wish him the very best for the future. I’m delighted that Andrea has agreed to become the club’s chief executive. She brings huge passion, commitment and energy to the club and was the board’s unanimous choice. We are sure she will be a great success in her new role and we wish her every success.”
There were no quotes attributed to Cohen in this Leicester exit statement but just three days before his snap departure he had spoken optimistically about the club’s future when confirming the coaching team for the 2020/21 season across the senior, development, academy and pathway programmes.
“We have not hidden from the fact that, in recent seasons, the club has not delivered on the pitch up to the standard which we deem successful at Leicester Tigers,” said Cohen.
“The mix of experience, innovation and, most impressively, the hunger to work hard and succeed that this new-look coaching team has is something we should all be, and are, excited about to take the Tigers forward on the next step of this journey.
“We are building nicely, yes, but there are no quick fixes and, club-wide, we need to now commit to the hard work required to deliver for our fans, partners and ourselves,” he said.
That optimism suggested that Cohen was very much eager to be part of this new chapter, but he was gone from Leicester just 72 hours later even though his experience in salary cap management and his hard-nosed style had been seen as Welford Road assets.
Cohen’s May 2020 exit meant he became the fourth board member to leave since December 2019, the CEO following Lord Digby Marritt Jones, Terence Michael Gateley and Peter Aldis in departing.
Comments on RugbyPass
Does a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
130 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
130 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
130 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
130 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to comments