Pressure builds on RFU chief to resign

TOM Ilube’s tenure as RFU Board Chairman, and his financial credentials, will come under increased scrutiny with the news that Crossword Cybersecurity PLC, a company of which he was founder and chief executive, went into administration on November 18.

- NICK CAIN

After a torrid week in which leading RFU figures Ilube and chief executive Bill Sweeney have been lambasted for allowing excessive pay rises for themselves and other senior RFU executives, this further setback in the RFU chairman’s own business interests will only add to the pressure on him to resign.

Crossword Cybersecurity’s audited accounts deposited at Companies House show revenues were £4.2m, with bottom line losses of £3.9m for the year ending December 2023, with Ilube, the firm’s chief executive in that year, paid a salary of £135,000. The balance shows Crossword Cybersecurity’s cumulative losses as £19m.

Ilube lists on his CV another two companies of which he was founder/CEO which have gone bust, with Companies House records showing that Garlik Ltd was dissolved in 2016, and Lost Wax Ltd was dissolved in 2010.

This will do nothing to douse the widespread criticism of the salaries and bonuses awarded to executives by the RFU Board Remuneration Committee on which Ilube sits – and which approved a massive pay package of £1.1m for Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive – despite the RFU posting a record loss to reserves of £42m.