RFU to review whistleblowing policies after FA's Mark Sampson case
Tuesday 24 October 2017 22:44, UK
English rugby bosses are reviewing policies on whistleblowers in the wake of the Football Association fallout over the Mark Sampson case.
The Rugby Football Union has confirmed it has examined its approach to handling scenarios similar to the issues that engulfed the FA over former England Women coach Sampson.
English football's governing body faced the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee after Sampson was found to have made remarks which were "discriminatory on grounds of race" to England forward Eni Aluko.
Chief executive Steve Brown admitted the RFU was moved to double-check its policies in the wake of the FA fallout, and pledged to keep refining its regulations in future.
Asked if the RFU had looked at its policies again since the FA controversy, Brown replied: "We have. We have well-established policies and have publicised our approach to whistleblowing, for example.
"And in that spirit of continuously learning and improving, and observing what can go wrong sometimes, we're constantly looking at it.
"And we're having a look now to make sure we have got that right, or if we need to do more. It's critical to the good governance of a sport to keep looking at those things to make sure they work properly."
Brown was speaking as the RFU unveiled its four-year strategic plan with the bold aim of becoming "England's strongest sport" by 2021, with £443million to be invested back into rugby in that time frame.
The RFU boss insisted the organisation must remain vigilant to avoid any controversies similar to that engulfing the FA.
"Any sport has a risk of an issue of that nature," said Brown. "What we're working on and making sure we have as an organisation is that making sure we're in a place where that wouldn't happen.
"From our perspective it's about being transparent, open, clear, making good quality decisions, and keep checking and challenging ourselves to make sure we live up to those high standards we set.
"And if we carry on our lives like that then hopefully we'll always find ourselves the right side of a tricky position."
