Cullen: 'We are running a business here, it's a self-funding business'

SELF FUNDING: Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has defended the province’s outlay on foreign players in the wake of criticism from a former Ireland sevens star, and insisted that the club runs on a “self-funded” model that generates money for the benefit of the wider game. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has defended the province’s outlay on foreign players in the wake of criticism from a former Ireland sevens star, and insisted that the club runs on a “self-funded” model that generates money for the benefit of the wider game.

Terry Kennedy, a former World Sevens player of the year, referenced Leinster indirectly in a social media post when giving his reaction to the decision by the IRFU this week to terminate the men’s programme in the shorter form of the game.

Describing the move as “absolutely shocking,” Kennedy called it short-sighted, as a financial cost-cutting excuse that is “complete smoke and mirrors”, and then referenced indirectly the most successful of the XVs provincial teams.

“No mention of the millions paid to bring foreign players over on short-term contracts,” he stated at one point, while also declaring the union's nuclear decision as a mark of disrespect to Sport Ireland and the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

All of this was news to Cullen who was busy preparing his side for their last regular-season URC game against Glasgow on Saturday. He could have stuck to game talk, but instead launched into a reasoned state of the nation address.

“Sport is a business,” he said at one point.

Cullen took us back 30 years, to the dawn of professionalism, when he was a 19-year old aspiring lock and Leinster’s HQ was nothing more than a prefab beside the Old Wesley clubhouse in a yet-to-be-redeveloped Donnybrook.

That prefab is gone now, replaced by a state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence which acts as bridging station between underage rugby and the senior setup down the road in UCD. And that sort of growth is apparent elsewhere.

From playing a couple of games per year in front of a few hundred in Donnybrook, Leinster can now fill Croke Park. The revenue being generated, Cullen says, is being used to fertilise all areas, from the pro level down to grass roots.

“In terms of some of the foreign players in our 23 this week, we want to make it exciting for fans. When you move from a few hundred people in Donnybrook back in the day, to the RDS which is being redeveloped, and then this year in the Aviva… You need to get bums on seat.

“We are running a business here. It’s a self-funding business. It’s not like we’re looking for money from outside. It’s not like if sevens have a surplus we’re looking for their money. That’s not how it works. So that’s what we’re in control of.” 

It seems the province is taking it in the neck from all angles since their Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton Saints. Cullen has already had to dismiss as “wild” estimations that their wage bill is up in the region of €17m per year.

So it was put to him whether some transparency on the part of the IRFU in terms of funding figures for the provinces might be a way of silencing the whispers.

“It’s like me asking what you get paid. Compared to your colleague. These are private things and everyone wants to jump on that private aspect, There are private negotiations with every player and what gives everyone any right to know all this information?

“There’s no obligation to say exactly what people get paid.

“Maybe some day that might come in but it’s not there currently. So I don’t know what the answer is. Even if you did say what certain players were paid that would annoy people. I don’t understand what is being helped by answering that question.”