SCOTTISH Rugby President Ian Barr believes that a new structure adopted by the governing body will help bring about greater unity within the game.
The change - approved in principle by an overwhelming vote at a special general meeting at Murrayfield last night - will see the creation of a new company limited by guarantee (CLG), which will take over all the assets currently held by the SRU Trust. Crucially, that includes the land at Murrayfield.
The CLG will have more effective representation from the clubs, and will be responsible for overseeing the work of Scottish Rugby Union Limited (basically the current SRU board, which is headed by chief executive Mark Dodson). The Trust is to be scrapped along with the SRU Council, which is supposed to scrutinise the executive but in recent years has been criticised as weak. A Club Rugby Board will also be set up.
“The change that we’re proposing is actually to have Scottish rugby working as one - have everybody working together for the same end, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities,” Barr said last night after the motion to adopt the structure was approved by 109 votes to five.
“[It will] enable our executive team led by Mark to have the full autonomy to run the business, and at the same time have from the clubs’ perspective that oversight and scrutiny, transparency - all the key values that you have in modern governance structures. So I think it is a new era of all working together for the same end, basically.”
General meetings at Murrayfield have often been fractious affairs in recent years, but last night there were no dissenting voices, and the whole thing lasted just 15 minutes.
A second meeting will be required later this year to ratify the new structure once all the paperwork is complete. A simple majority of those voting was required last night, but a two-thirds majority will be needed next time as final approval of the new structure amounts to a constitutional change.
