Ralph Rimmer lands new government job one week after confirmation of £245,000 RFL payoff

One week ago today (26th July) the Rugby Football League released their report from 2022 and within the findings it was revealed that former Chief Executive Officer Ralph Rimmer had received a share of a £245,000 pay out.

Listed in the reports as ‘director renumerations’ it was reported that they had increased from £455,000 in 2021 to £787,000 in 2022 with both Rimmer and the Chief Regulatory Officer, Karen Moorhouse, being allotted £245,000 of that almost three quarter of a million pound total.

Rimmer’s replacement and current CEO of the RFL, Tony Sutton, spoke on BBC Radio Manchester over the weekend and explained that the figure was effectively accounted for in 2021 because the governing body knew that the large fee would be scheduled for 2022.

He explained: “Well a couple of things on that and I’ll give a little bit of background if that’s okay. So we knew from probably mid 2021 that we would need to downsize senior management at the RFL.

“So this is something that we knew was coming and something that we’d planned for both in that 2021 result that I’ve mentioned and knowing that 2022 would be a different financial position.”

It wasn’t a payout or an answer that necessarily satisfied many rugby league fans however there is more positive news for Rimmer with the government now confirming that July saw him receive a new role.

It had been reported in early June that he had been appointed as an independant advisor to support the RFU and PRL in their work on the future sustainability of rugby union.

However now in July Rimmer has been given a more official role within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with hat role being the non-executive director for the government department.

The current Minister for the department is Lucy Frazer and Rimmer will likely work with her and the 42 other agencies that support the department in his role with the government website stating.

“The main responsibilities of non-executive directors are to:

– attend meetings of the departmental board, chaired by the Secretary of State

– provide over-arching strategic guidance and insight to the department”

Rimmer stood down from the RFL in 2022 with current CEO Tony Sutton taking over.