RFU chief Sweeney wins confidence vote

Members back him by 466 votes to 206.

Bill Sweeney has survived a vote of no confidence. Pic: Kirsty O’Connor/PA

Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney has survived a vote of no confidence held at a special general meeting where he faced a call for his dismissal by the board.

A community game uprising gathered enough support to trigger the RFU’s first SGM for 20 years and tabled the motion for Sweeney’s contract to be terminated as soon as possible.

But they could muster only 206 of the 466 votes cast with 36 abstaining, registering 29.10 per cent of the total vote.

The 65.82 per cent who voted in support of Sweeney means the highest ranking administrator in English rugby has faced down the rebellion.

The SGM was held at Twickenham and featured a mixture of RFU members attending and others taking part virtually. Of the total RFU membership of around 1,300, 672 cast votes.

Interim chairman Bill Beaumont described the outcome of the vote as “emphatic”.