Labour Leader Demands WRU Chief Executive Resigns Over West Wales Betrayal
Labour Leader Demands WRU Chief Executive Resigns Over West Wales Betrayal
Swansea Council's Labour Leader, Rob Stewart, has called on WRU Chief Executive Abi Tierney to resign after the Union offered two of the three professional rugby licences to Cardiff and Newport.
The decision is part of the WRU's plan to cut the four Welsh regions down to three. The third licence in the West remains unresolved, leaving the Ospreys and Scarlets facing an uncertain future.
The announcement comes as a leaked recording emerged of Abi Tierney telling journalists in a private briefing in April that she favoured a merger between the Ospreys and Scarlets.
Cllr Stewart said players and supporters across West Wales had been let down.
"I cannot see how Abi Tierney can continue as CEO of the WRU following the release of the recording.
"The WRU has strung everyone along claiming this would be a fair and transparent process, while all the time they've been plotting behind the scenes.
"The WRU has now announced without any consultation or publishing any supporting evidence, that Cardiff and Newport will be offered two of the three licences.
"We were given assurances by the WRU during our on-going legal case that this would be a fair and transparent process, which is why we agreed to pause our legal case.
"How can anyone call this a fair and open process when two of the licences have been decided behind closed doors, while players and supporters at the Ospreys and Scarlets are now facing an uncertain future."
Labour councillors in Swansea have backed the Leader's stand. The council's position is straightforward. Communities in the West deserve the same treatment as communities in the East, and decisions of this scale must be made on evidence, in public.
Cllr Stewart accused the WRU of redrawing the rugby map of Wales to protect Cardiff at any cost.
"The WRU have arbitrarily carved up the rugby map of Wales to suit their own biased view, knowing they wanted to sell Cardiff to Y11 at the time and it would lead them to the result they wanted, with complete disregard for the impact this would have on our region.
"Geographically, Newport and Cardiff are both in the East and they could merge to create a new East team, with the Ospreys in the South and Scarlets in the West."
In the leaked recording, Ms Tierney describes having tried repeatedly to get the two western clubs to agree a merger, and accepts she cannot force clubs into something they do not want. She goes on to suggest a merged team could split fixtures between Parc y Scarlets and St Helen's, using one ground for summer games and the other for winter, on the basis that supporters will travel to follow their team.
Cllr Stewart said those comments confirmed his concerns.
"The recording demonstrates the WRU Chief Executive has been following one route publicly and other privately. How can anyone have faith in the current leadership of the WRU, or that they will speak truthfully and transparently.
"Taken together, these developments show that key decisions have already been made behind closed doors, with only the mechanism for delivering them still under discussion.
"Supporters, players and communities across Wales deserve confidence that decisions affecting the future of professional rugby are being made fairly, transparently and on the basis of evidence, not through a process where outcomes have effectively been determined in advance."
The issue sits at the heart of Swansea Council's legal challenge, which argues the case for a single professional licence in West Wales has not been justified and that serious questions remain unanswered.
The council's lawyers have written to the WRU as the stay in proceedings ends this week. The WRU Defence is due in two weeks.
