In charge of rugby here since 1998, Philip Browne has overseen a transformation of fortunes on and off the field. But will a change of coach at national level be enough to keep the champagne flowing, asks Kyran Fitzgerald

Picture: SPORTSFILE

This week, the axe finally fell on Declan Kidney, the 2009 Grand Slam-winning coach. The man reluctantly applying the coup de grâce, Philip Browne, is hardly a household name.

However, the low-profile IRFU chief executive presides over an organisation with an annual income approaching €70m and a player base in excess of 150,000 people.

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The revenues of the country’s rugby body have trebled in the past decade, but are the good times drawing to a close?

Certainly, the CEOs of Irish organisations are under the spotlight as never before. This week, delegates at the Irish Medical Organisation annual conference scrutinised the details of the extraordinary employment contract of their former chief, George McNeice.

There have been some rumblings in the Law Society about the salary of long-serving director general Ken Murphy while the FAI boss, John Delaney, continues to attract unwelcome attention concerning his hefty pay package.

However, little in the way of mud has stuck to the man responsible for the day-to-day running of the country’s second largest sporting organisation, behind the GAA.

Philip Browne has filled the post of IRFU chief executive since 1998. A quietly spoken individual, and one-time champion rower, he has been happy to operate under the radar during a period when the finances of the country’s rugby body have under-gone a transformation during what have been halcyon days for the game.

Meanwhile, John Delaney — the son of a top FAI stalwart — has exerted a strong grip over his organisation and has been happy to cultivate a high-public profile, famously buying drinks for the fans at Euro 2012 in Poland before emerging bleary eyed from the festivities.

However, Browne has provided rather less in the way of entertaining copy for the news and sports desks. Respectability is the name of the game.

Educated in the fashionable, largely Protestant boarding school of St Columba’s in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, and later at Trinity College Dublin, Browne has no problem dealing with the comm-ittee men who have the final say in all decisions that emanate from the IRFU headquarters in the precincts of the Aviva Stadium.

A new president, Billy Glynn, has recently taken over. A partner in the law firm Ronan Daly Jermyn, based in Galway, he presided over Connacht rugby a dozen years ago.

Browne has overseen a restructuring in the organisation, with the appointment of new executives including former Ryanair PRO Stephen McNamara.

Browne already had a few big files on his tray — he would not have wished for the task of replacing Ireland’s most successful rugby coach to be added to that list.

One suspects that the file pulled most frequently from the drawer is that marked ‘Heineken Cup broadcasting rights income’.

The Heineken Cup has been an extraordinary success story and the dominance of the Irish provinces was something never foreseen when the competition launched in the mid-1990s.

Success on the field has been replicated off the pitch.

Between 2001 and 2010, revenues jumped from €21.6m to just over €69m while numbers of registered players have mushroomed from 90,000 to 152,000 by 2011.

Under the current European Rugby Cup arrangements, the IRFU receives revenues from the ERC, the body which runs the Heineken and Amlin European rugby competitions, amounting to around €16m a year, or almost one-quarter of the total divvy out.

The English and French clubs have made it clear that they are looking for a much greater share of the spoils once the current deal runs out at the end of next season.

The IRFU would be down by €11m if it were to be confined to receiving its fair share and no more (based on gate/viewer numbers). A breakdown of revenues reveals that around 40% of income is accounted for by ticketing with more than one-quarter coming from TV rights.

Sponsorship has been running at around €10m, but earlier this year, a blow came with the news that Puma was ending its lucrative shirt sponsorship, with a gradual rundown to the summer of 2014.

Puma indicated that this is part of a global restruct-uring of sponsorships. However, sales of rugby shirts have halved since the onset of a recession which has also eaten into ticket sales and, in particular, into the sales of 10-year Aviva stadium tickets, 3,200 of which needed be shifted.

By the mid-March deadline, half of these tickets had been sold at €9,000 each (the same price as in 2003). The remainder have been absorbed by the IRFU’s commercial programme.

The IRFU says it is making progress in replacing Puma, adding that it has received acceptable compensation.

The IRFU has, until recently, ridden out the recession extraordinarily well. As a result, the organisation has had little difficulty keeping up payments on its loans related to the Aviva Stadium, which opened in 2010, boosted by a generous rights deal and by a large tranche of government money (almost €200m of the €410m total cost, the residue being shared between the IRFU and the FAI).

At its AGM in Jul 2011, Browne and treasurer Tom Grace, former rugby international and top insolvency practitioner, warned of tough times ahead. Browne pointed out that the budget for provincial and domestic games would have to be reduced if income falls.

Last July, he conceded that the IRFU would have to give ground on broadcasting rights’ income to ensure the Heineken Cup’s survival.

The IRFU still managed to report revenues for 2011 of €67.3m — down slightly on 2010 — with a surplus of almost €8m being used, in part, to pay down stadium debt.

Net debt was down to €13m by the end of April last year.

2012 brought further Heineken Cup success for the provinces, with Leinster picking up the trophy, but December marked what could be a turning point. The champions exited in the pool stages, suffering a home defeat to French club Clermont, a rising force on the back of a wave of business money.

Irish players suffered a severe physical battering in the recent Six Nations, too. The concern is that the Irish provinces could endure similar punishment as the pendulum swings back towards increasingly well-resourced clubs in France and England.

Browne and the IRFU must walk a fine line between underpinning the national team and backing the provinces.

Browne has announced a clampdown on the use of foreign players by the provinces in an effort to provide more scope for homegrown players to advance their careers. But such a move runs the risk of backfiring if the provinces head for an early bath at the end of the Heineken Cup pool stages next year.

Lower gates, reduced sponsorships, and an exit of star players such as Johnny Sexton could become the order of the day.

Coach Declan Kidney was put to the sword with brisk efficiency. Gentlemen are often adept at carrying out executions, but will the carnage stop here?

Getting to know: Philip Browne

- Age: 52.

- Born: Dublin.

- Education: St Columba’s, Rathfarnham; The High School. TCD — science degree. PhD. MBA.

- Career: Andersen Consulting. Institute of Clinical Pharmacology. 
- 1992: Joins IRFU. 1995: IRFU secretary.

- 1998 to date: CEO.

- Family: Married to Ann Marie. Two children.

- Leisure: Hillwalking; swimming.

- Other: Represented Ireland at two world rowing championships.

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