Steve Borthwick is ‘unsackable’ no matter how badly England perform at the World Cup as the the RFU are unable to afford his £3m pay-off… despite offering players £212k bonuses if they triumph in France
- England’s Steve Borthwick may be ‘unsacakable’ regardless of performances
- Sacking him and his staff would cost around £3m, which the RFU cannot afford
- The governing body has been hit hard by Covid and the rising cost of living
- Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results
The financial crisis besetting English rugby is so acute there are fears England head coach Steve Borthwick is ‘unsackable’ because the RFU can’t afford a pay-off, no matter how badly his team perform.
The World Cup starts on Friday with England as long-odds sixth favourites at best. Borthwick signed a five-year contract last year and is understood to earn just over £700,000 per year.
Sacking him and his staff this year — in the event of a woeful World Cup — could cost in the region of £3million.
‘After paying Leicester something like £500,000 compensation to get Borthwick last year, on top of huge severance [pay of about £1.4m] for [former coach] Eddie Jones, there’s no appetite to sack Borthwick,’ said one high-ranking source.
‘It would be too expensive.’ Another source said: ‘The RFU is on the ropes financially. They are expecting to suffer huge losses over the next couple of years.’
The RFU may be unable to sack England coach Steve Borthwick no matter how poorly he performs as they cannot afford his pay-off
England players will collect RFU bonuses of over £200,000 if they win the upcoming World Cup, but this seems unlikely after a poor run of form
English club rugby has been struggling for some time, with Wasps and Worcester forced into administration
The parlous state of the RFU’s finances are laid bare in their latest accounts, just published. The club game has been in crisis for a while, with Worcester and Wasps put into administration.
The governing body is far from in rude health either. The RFU’s financial statements detail how the Covid pandemic and the rising cost of living were among the factors that have cost them £150m in lost revenues. England attendances have failed to return to pre-Covid levels. The RFU have also fully drawn down two loans worth £50m and £14m.
The financial stresses comes at a time when the RFU are offering bigger potential bonuses to their players at the World Cup than any other governing body. In the unlikely event England win in France, the players would collect an RFU bonus worth around £212,000 apiece.
The French would get around £172,000 each from their federation for winning, while the players from New Zealand and Australia expect bonuses of up to £100,000 from their federations if they triumph.
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