THE Rucker is taking it as a backhanded compliment that the Scottish Rugby Union decided to get in ahead of me and post its own question and answer session on the SRU website, and there’s no doubt it does give some explanation of what’s going on ahead of the Special General Meeting on Friday.
Their Q and A, however, actually begs more questions than it answers about the sale of Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby.
For a start, one of the biggest bones of contention I have been hearing about is the actual timing of the SGM. President Rob Flockhart makes great play of wanting as many clubs to attend as possible, so which brain-box came up with the idea of having it at six o’clock on a Friday?
If this decision is as vastly important as the board and council appear to be making out, then there should have been consultation with all the clubs about what was the best date and time for the SGM.
The time will cause particular problems for the clubs in the far-flung areas of this land of ours. Scotland may be a small country but it still takes many hours to travel from the likes of Aberdeen, the Highlands and Islands, Dumfries and Galloway and all points in between, especially at rush hour. Still, there may be some people getting a lift because I hear some of our development officers are going to become taxi drivers for the day.
And will the SRU pay the expenses of those people who, simply because of the timing, will have to stay the night in Edinburgh, presuming that the business gets done in a few hours, as is anticipated?
The biggest single issue that I have heard is why the SGM was needed at all when this issue could have been raised at the AGM a short while ago and dealt with then. Other people are questioning why the president and the council are driving this forward – it’s their names on the motion – when it is clearly an initiative by the executives and the board of the SRU.
Some people have the temerity to think that the president and the council are there to represent the clubs and do what’s best for them and not do what’s best for the executives at Murrayfield. How dare they?
No doubt the vote will go through, but I for one cannot see any serious business person investing in either Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh Rugby unless they can have complete control of the operation.
It makes absolutely no sense for anyone to want to put money into the pro clubs and still be effectively controlled from Murrayfield.
Either the SRU acts as a governing body and leaves the clubs to get on with running themselves, or it continues to meddle and interfere. No doubt all these issues will be explained at Murrayfield on Friday night, but on the face of it, this plan looks like a non-starter unless the SRU board and executives have a fairly amenable Fairy Godperson lined up to take them to the ball and ask for nothing in return.
In the real world of business such characters do not exist.
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