THE HERALD REPORTS

Murrayfield's top official yesterday promised that the future of Edinburgh Rugby is secure despite the club's legal dispute with the game's governing body. After a wide-ranging media briefing at the national stadium yesterday, Gordon McKie, the SRU's chief executive, issued that assurance in response to growing speculation about the involvement of the consortium that took ownership of the team last year.

While Bob Carruthers, Edinburgh's main financial backer, was reported as saying they are now taking legal action against the SRU, the club's official stance was to say no proceedings are under way.

Yet, after issuing a statement yesterday detailing the grievance between the club and the SRU over ownership of contractual rights for cross-border competitions, Bob's younger brother, Alex, who runs the club on a day-to-day basis as its chairman, admitted it looks inevitable because of what is best described as a personality clash.

"We are still open to approaches but it can only be sorted out now if the two principals to the original agreement Bob Carruthers and McKie get around the table and sort it out, which we've been trying to achieve for months," said Alex.

McKie claimed to be taken aback by that position, saying Edinburgh had been given more support than the SRU was required to give them under the deal thrashed out last summer and that he is in no doubt about the legal position.

"We have abided by the terms of our contract since the day it was signed and I'm very confident we'll be able to defend any potential legal action if it's now to be forthcoming," he said. "I'm disappointed and surprised it's been announced through the media if it is the case. Normally it would be courtesy to have one last go sitting around the table to sort it out, but that's been going on for months. It's only what I've read today. It may not happen. Maybe it's just bluff and bluster."

Carruthers' outbursts have fuelled suspicions that he is getting ready to withdraw his support for Edinburgh. A major part of the deal was that through his company, Murrayfield Sport & Leisure Ltd, revenues would be raised by arranging concerts at the stadium. Very few have so far been announced. More particularly, with Edinburgh's leading players leaving the club in large numbers while the team have been struggling on the field, his involvement in the ill-conceived bid to rescue the Border Reivers seemed particularly odd.

His younger brother denied there was any question of circumstances being manufactured to save face in withdrawing from involvement with Edinburgh while claiming to be unable to work with the SRU, saying: "We have always said we're in this for the long-term and are not walking away."

McKie was, however, prepared to address the possibility. "I am confident that if Bob Carruthers decided to walk away, the Edinburgh pro team would continue next year, be it with support from third parties or others who would like to run it," said the chief executive. "In other words, someone might come in and take him out. I think there are people who would be interested in the Edinburgh franchise. I don't know who they are because I'm not courting them but if Bob were to throw in the towel I think Edinburgh would survive. It's got a good name. It's got international players, in spite of some people moving recently."

That in itself seems highly speculative, particularly when McKie restated that for all the talk about possible investors that has surrounded the sport, the Carruthers consortium is the only one that has ever tabled a serious proposal. However, he believes the SRU would be prepared to keep the Edinburgh team going in those circumstances, even without another backer.

"That's a board decision, not mine, but I think it would be strategically compelling for us to ensure that two teams stay in Scotland," he said.

McKie confirmed that there remains interest in basing an SRU-sanctioned Magners League team in London and that England's RFU have now been asked to consider their position on that.

He also said a bid by investors to get involved in Glasgow, which was mooted earlier this season, might have helped save the Reivers, but it never amounted to a formal proposal. A curious side-effect of that is that he now believes there is no scope for the Glasgow team to be sold.

"We would possibly give away a shareholding, subject to what they wanted in return, but not control," he explained. "The Edinburgh model is a good one, where a business person runs it, we subsidise it, but they feel it's theirs. In a perfect world, if you had two of them and one owned 50/50 that might be the ideal balance."

In short, a combination of the difficulty of the relationship with Edinburgh and the need to ensure that there is a team where full control over international players' schedules is maintained, has changed the landscape. "Never say never, but I don't think we'd jump into another Edinburgh-type deal in Glasgow in the next 12 months," he said. "We want to try to do it better. Put them in a proper stadium, give them a proper home, then hopefully in three to five years time things will take off when they've got a squad who can compete."

Stung by recent attacks on his integrity, McKie also revealed for the first time the extent of the pressure being imposed when he took over the running of the organisation two years ago. He explained that the SRU's bankers had, at that time, instigated "Project Shark" which was an insolvency review with a view to stop lending money to the organisation. "My reason for saying that was to try to put in perspective where we were in responding to all the rubbish about us being incompetent, lying, disingenuous. It's just blown out of all proportion," he said.


12:56am Friday 20th April 2007



By KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer

This article was originally posted on 19-Apr-2007, 22:05 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 19-Apr-2007, 22:33.