The Rugby Football League have lost another senior leadership figure after it was announced that Tony Sutton is to stand down as the chief executive of the governing body.<\/p>\n
Sutton has been with the governing body for eight years, having previously spent over a decade with Hull FC. He became CEO of the RFL in December 2022 succeeding Ralph Rimmer but has now mutually agreed to step aside.<\/p>\n
It is another major boardroom development at the top of rugby league \u2013 and it now arguably leaves Nigel Wood as the most senior official at the RFL. His official job title is senior executive director, having previously been brought in as interim chair at the governing body.<\/p>\n
And Sutton will now leave \u2013 but will work with the RFL on succession planning processes.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt has been a privilege to work in a sport I have come to love over more than two decades, with Hull FC and the RFL \u2013 and especially to hold the position of Chief Executive of the RFL for the last three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have inevitably been major challenges during that period, most obviously the pandemic of 2020 \u2013 but throughout them all, it is the commitment and support of the staff of the RFL that I will remember the most fondly.<\/p>\n
\u201cRugby League is a unique sport, full of special people, and I will always be grateful for the opportunities and experiences it has provided.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the RFL staff, including the match officials and so many other unsung heroes of the sport, I wish huge success and enjoyment, as the 2025 domestic season reaches its crescendo followed by a men\u2019s Ashes series in England, and a Wheelchair series in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The RFL board added: \u201cWe would like to thank Tony for his considerable contribution to the sport and to the governing body over the last decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a key figure in his role as Chief Operating Officer in securing the DCMS loan funding package which was so important in steering Rugby League through the unique challenges of the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe led on the relocation of the sport\u2019s headquarters to the Etihad Campus in Manchester, and as Chief Executive he has formed and chaired the Brain Health Committee, to drive forward the sport\u2019s policy on player safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RFL and Rugby League Commercial have strong executive management teams who, supported by both Boards, are well-placed to maximise the exciting prospects and opportunities for the sport this autumn and into 2026, allowing us to run our recruitment process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rugby Football League have lost another senior leadership figure after it was announced that Tony Sutton is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-122681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}