'It's sad to see the state the RFU is in'

Former union chief executive Francis Baron urges game to 'wake up' to financial state amid potential record losses

- Robert Kitson

England have had some tough results on the field lately and things are about to get even gloomier off it. Next Monday the Rugby Football Union's council members will be formally presented with the annual accounts for the 2023-24 financial year amid expectations of potential record losses at what was once the world's wealthiest union.

Among those awaiting the figures with particular interest is Francis Baron, who spent 12 years as the RFU's chief executive and was at the helm when England won the men's World Cup in 2003. Since leaving Twickenham, Baron has become increasingly concerned about the state of the union's finances and is predicting "very bad news for the game" when the figures are unveiled.

While fewer home games - and thus less income - in a World Cup season has been an obvious contributory factor, Baron's view is that the situation is fast approaching a critical point.

"Things have got to change," he warned. "I don't know what the final figure is going to be but the lowest [predicted overall loss] I've heard is £36m. The game has got to wake up to the fact we're not in a great position." Baron points to a combination of mediocre management, overpriced funding agreements with the Premiership clubs, insufficient investment in stadium maintenance and the RFU's deal with the private equity firm CVC Partners. He describes the latter "as an appalling deal" and believes surrendering almost 15% of the union's future broadcast revenues to a finance company will have long-term effects exacerbated by declining TV rights values.