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Mon 28 Mar 2005

New chief executive will have to bang heads together

JOHN BEATTIE

THE SRU is looking for a new chief executive. Wanted: someone who can bring this bloody game of ours together, sit us all round a table - former friend and former foe - and agree on something. I am sick to death of being involved in a sport where we are fighting each other, where we compete to be negative, and, frankly, where we are losing.

The biggest task for any new chief executive will be to persuade the Scottish Executive that rugby is worth supporting. Scottish rugby doesn’t generates enough money to dig itself out of the hole we are in, and it needs funded. We should, as a country, fund our major sports.

The reason I suggest having a manager in charge of the international team and the coaches of the professional teams assisting - there are no fixture clashes next year - is because it would take a brave man who would seriously stake his future on coaching the national team at the moment.

I don’t think Sean Lineen and Iain Paxton really want the job this soon. Yes, they might work under a manager, but could we seriously put them in charge?

Now, my idea might not be perfect and it might not be right, and perhaps there should be no jobs for life in coaching, but we should be innovative.

I can’t think of a single former Scotland coach who has gone on to bigger and better things. David Johnston and Richie Dixon were jettisoned, Colin Telfer had a year, and Jim Telfer retired. Others have been involved behind the scenes. Only Ian McGeechan might. But when I came into the Scotland team that included Colin Deans, Andy Irvine and Jim Renwick 14 games in a row had been lost.

The new chief executive has to be able to make big changes. He must bring the men on one side - the disenchanted like Jim Aitken, like Ian Barnes, like John McHarg, like Brian Simmers - together with whoever happen to be the new power brokers on the executive board, and let them talk and remember that, actually, they have the love of a game in common. We have too small a country for there to be major divisions. Yes, we argue, and arguing is good, but the serious divisions will injure the game terminally.

The new boss has to get everyone to agree as to how the money is spent. If for example, there is to be a franchised team in Stirling, does that mean that Glasgow loses its side? I was at Hughenden on Friday night, and it was busy.

If the Scottish professional sides all played their games on Friday nights, and supporters knew that they could pitch up at a local ground, have a beer, eat a cheeseburger and catch up with old mates at the start of the weekend then what a product we would have.

Which is why I think that Scotland’s more ambitious clubs will fear the news of the possible arrival of real investors in the professional game. It prolongs their absence from the top flight.

Then, the new chief executive has to get everyone to agree on the governance of the game. It’s not a simple job. In fact, it’s Scotland’s most important sporting job of all time. Any applicants?

This article was posted on 28-Mar-2005, 08:44 by Hugh Barrow.