EXCLUSIVE By STEVE MASCORD
RUGBY League’s club council is this week expected to hear details of a sweeping change to Super League’s board, with team representatives having replaced RFL chief executive Nigel Wood.
A number of sources have told rugbyleaguehub.com that the new board has already held its first meeting, although not all 12 clubs were represented.
The clubs had reached the required 75 per cent consensus to change the structure at a meeting held a month ago.
RFL chairman Brian Berwick – who remains on the Super League board – returned to Manchester in time for that gathering but Wood remained in the southern hemisphere in his role as chairman of the Rugby League International Federation during the World Cup.
Wood remains RFL and Super League CEO but the path is now clear for him to take over as chief executive of the RLIF – as widely foreshadowed – under a constitutional reform which will state that office holders must not be affiliated to a member country’s governing body.
It’s understood Wood was interviewed for the CEO’s post in Sydney by a three-person RLIF sub-committee in late October. It’s unknown if there were any other interviewees.
Under this change, outgoing Australian Rugby League chairman John Grant would be able to assume the RLIF chairmanship.
That, however, is reliant on him remaining a nominee of the Australian Rugby League Commission; if former Queensland premier Peter Beattie is appointed the new ARLC chairman – as expected – he may choose to sit on the international governing body himself and stand for the chairmanship.
When Grant was asked on November 3 about early speculation linking him and Wood to these roles, he said: “I don’t know how anyone could draw that conclusion – the Federation already has a chairman in Nigel Wood and he has at least a year to run in that role.
“It’s a bloody good story if you can get someone to substantiate it but I’m certainly not in a position to do so. It’s putting the cart before the horse.
“If I remain on the Federation as Australia’s appointee, that will be at the pleasure of the Australian Rugby League Commission and not my decision.
“There’s nothing to say that a member of the RLIF board has to be anything other than the appointee of a member country.”
Grant admitted he was interested in staying on. “Yes, I am very interested in international rugby league and the way it is expanding and becoming so much more important.”
Asked if Wood might become CEO, which would allow him to be chairman, Grant said: “Well, I guess that’s a possibility.
“But one of the things we have to do is work out a process for replacing (current RLIF CEO) David Collier. Some time before Christmas we will put a process in place and go from there in assessing candidates.
“To say these decisions have already been made is fanciful.”
The most intriguing aspect of the developments is not the shuffling of the chairs but the timing of each one’s movement.
The discretion with which the Super League clubs have treated a major governance change suggests a desire to make the transition to the RLIF as smooth as possible for Wood.
But the question remains: did the decision to move against him precede his being interviewed for his likely new role? And why have the changes taken so long to come to light?
Wood has been a director of Super League (Europe) since it began in 1996.
