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The most powerful man in sport is about to get more powerful · The Morning Edition

• 0:07
  S1: State of Origin is rugby league. S night of nights
• 0:10
  S1: as Queensland and New South Wales battle it out for supremacy.
• 0:14
  S1: But as the teams take to the field tonight, there's
• 0:17
  S1: a battle of a very different kind playing out in
• 0:20
  S1: the epicentre of power in the NRL.
• 0:22
  S2: It's breaking news in the rugby league world this morning,
• 0:24
  S2: with reports NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has stepped down from.
• 0:29
  S3: Andrew Abdo announced today that he's quitting to join Tennis Australia.
• 0:33
  S4: I'd like to thank the fans and the rugby league
• 0:36
  S4: community for taking me in, making my family and I
• 0:39
  S4: feel truly Australian. The players are amazing athletes. The clubs.
• 0:45
  S1: I'm Bevan Shields, filling in for Samantha Selinger, Maurice and
• 0:48
  S1: you're listening to The Morning Edition from The Age and
• 0:51
  S1: Sydney Morning Herald. Today, National head of sport Neil Breen
• 0:56
  S1: on the politics of the NRL and whether too much
• 0:59
  S1: power may land in the hands of one man. It's Wednesday,
• 1:03
  S1: May 27th. Britney, thanks for joining me today.
• 1:10
  S5: Thanks for having me, Bevin.
• 1:11
  S1: Tonight, the State of Origin series kicks off. But it's
• 1:14
  S1: really what's happening off field that has all of us talking.
• 1:18
  S1: So maybe start by telling us what has happened this week.
• 1:23
  S1: What news dropped on Monday about the league's CEO Andrew Abdo?
• 1:27
  S5: Yeah. So Andrew Abdo has been the chief executive officer
• 1:30
  S5: of the NRL for six years. He was appointed during Covid.
• 1:34
  S5: And obviously rugby league led the way in global sport
• 1:37
  S5: in showing sports how to get back on the field.
• 1:39
  S5: While we had all of these strange things going on
• 1:42
  S5: in all of our societies with regards to Covid and protocols.
• 1:46
  S5: And so he's done a great job as CEO. But
• 1:48
  S5: really in that time as CEO, he has been number
• 1:51
  S5: two in the code to Peter V'landys and Peter V'landys,
• 1:54
  S5: who's the chairman of the ARL Commission. And he's also
• 1:59
  S5: the boss of racing. He's the CEO of Racing in
• 2:01
  S5: New South Wales, which is his day job, has been
• 2:04
  S5: this great visionary who's come along in sport. He's become
• 2:08
  S5: this master sports administrator who has ideas and is somehow
• 2:13
  S5: able to execute them. But behind the ideas are unbelievable lieutenants.
• 2:17
  S5: And that's really what Andrew Abdo as CEO was. He
• 2:21
  S5: was the lieutenant who made things happen. The season launches
• 2:24
  S5: in Las Vegas. All of these expansions, all of these
• 2:28
  S5: ideas that Peter had, that Abdo was this like, he's
• 2:32
  S5: an accountant by trade. He's a meticulous guy and he
• 2:35
  S5: got the job done. Now, a guy like that is
• 2:38
  S5: highly sought after because of the success of rugby league
• 2:41
  S5: revenues through the roof view is through the roof, on television,
• 2:46
  S5: everything about the game, all the metrics are amazing. And
• 2:49
  S5: so he threw his hat into the ring to be
• 2:51
  S5: the boss of Tennis Australia. We know that Craig Tiley
• 2:53
  S5: has run Tennis Australia and the Australian Open at the
• 2:56
  S5: same time with an iron fist, but he's been headhunted
• 3:00
  S5: by Usta Tennis in America. So he's running tennis in America,
• 3:04
  S5: left the door open and Andrew Abdo secured that job.
• 3:07
  S5: It's a big job for him. It's a great job
• 3:09
  S5: for him. But it leaves the rugby league in a
• 3:12
  S5: really interesting place.
• 3:14
  S1: So there's now an opening at the top of the
• 3:16
  S1: NRL with Abdo's exit. Um is there. But there. Well
• 3:20
  S1: that's the question. There's a there's a lot of speculation
• 3:23
  S1: about what might happen. There's a very big name circling
• 3:27
  S1: around who might take that job. And that name is
• 3:29
  S1: Peter V'landys. Now he's stepped in as the interim CEO
• 3:34
  S1: for the time being. But everyone's wondering whether he'll eventually
• 3:38
  S1: become executive chairman. So he will retain his role as chairman.
• 3:42
  S1: He'll also effectively become the CEO and merge both roles. Now,
• 3:47
  S1: at a press conference on Monday, one journalist said to
• 3:50
  S1: Peter V'landys, Well, there's a feeling in the game that
• 3:54
  S1: the NRL is going to conduct this big worldwide search
• 3:57
  S1: and surprise, surprise, it's going to land on you. Now
• 4:00
  S1: before we get to what might happen there. Just again,
• 4:03
  S1: take us back and describe to listeners who are maybe
• 4:07
  S1: not NRL fans, who V'landys is and why he is
• 4:11
  S1: such a huge figure in the Australian sporting context.
• 4:17
  S5: So Peter V'landys is a Greek migrant to Australia. He
• 4:23
  S5: spent his childhood in Wollongong. Um sport was the thing
• 4:28
  S5: that he felt gave him inclusion into society. And he
• 4:33
  S5: found by playing rugby league at his local school and
• 4:35
  S5: his local club, he became a member of Australian society.
• 4:39
  S5: So that's something that has fuelled him in his life.
• 4:41
  S1: And he thought of the boy, the boy from the gong. Done. Good. Right.
• 4:45
  S1: He's got the Prime Minister on speed dial. The Premier, everybody.
• 4:48
  S5: He's got the whole nation on speed dial. He's the
• 4:50
  S5: he's one of the most influential people in the country.
• 4:52
  S5: Don't worry about in sport. He's one of the like,
• 4:56
  S5: if you did a power list of New South Wales,
• 5:00
  S5: I think he like he rivals men's. The premier. Yeah,
• 5:04
  S5: he's right up there. But what happened was he got
• 5:06
  S5: involved in racing administration and his first big job sort of.
• 5:10
  S5: I don't even know if he was 30. It was
• 5:12
  S5: around the age of 30. He took over the running
• 5:15
  S5: of the trots at Harold Park. And his first big
• 5:18
  S5: thing that he did, he was running the trots. He
• 5:20
  S5: was had all these crazy ideas with trots and all
• 5:23
  S5: old stodgy trot people. But who's this guy? But he's
• 5:26
  S5: suddenly getting crowds and everything. And he was able to,
• 5:30
  S5: to do that and parlay that job and the success
• 5:33
  S5: he had in that job into becoming the CEO of
• 5:36
  S5: Racing New South Wales, which was 21 years ago. And
• 5:39
  S5: he went into racing New South Wales. And, you know,
• 5:41
  S5: like racing's run along for years and years. You've got
• 5:43
  S5: Randwick and Rosehill and Canterbury and Warwick Farm, and you've
• 5:46
  S5: got all the country tracks and they just go week
• 5:48
  S5: to week, year to year and do their business, have
• 5:50
  S5: all their races. He was never content to do that.
• 5:53
  S5: He had he had ideas. He was all about, you know,
• 5:57
  S5: how to make more people, young people go to the races.
• 6:00
  S5: But the big thing that he did and the thing
• 6:02
  S5: that made him was that forever in a day in Australia,
• 6:06
  S5: there were bookmakers who were on course. Then you were
• 6:08
  S5: able to bet with them by phone, and there was
• 6:11
  S5: the tab, and you could go into the tab in
• 6:14
  S5: your suburb and place your bet. But the digital economy
• 6:17
  S5: came along hot off the heels of other bookmakers being
• 6:21
  S5: licensed to take phone bets. And so what happened was
• 6:24
  S5: the tab, which would take $0.15 to $0.21 in the dollar,
• 6:30
  S5: depending on what bet you had and distribute to the
• 6:32
  S5: racing industry. The tab lost the market. It still had
• 6:36
  S5: a fair chunk of it to Sportsbet Center bet out
• 6:39
  S5: of Darwin. All these other places. Okay, then the digital
• 6:42
  S5: thing happened. People are betting on their phones at the
• 6:44
  S5: same time that was happening. Those betting companies weren't paying
• 6:48
  S5: a license fee to racing. The tab had to to
• 6:52
  S5: fuel racing, but the other companies weren't. And Peter V'landys
• 6:56
  S5: went to court and argued that those race fields that
• 7:00
  S5: they put on their websites for you to place a
• 7:02
  S5: bet on where the intellectual property of racing and you
• 7:05
  S5: have to pay to use our IP. Everyone said he lose.
• 7:09
  S5: He didn't. He won big. That was the thing that
• 7:12
  S5: made him millions, billions of dollars.
• 7:18
  S1: After the break.
• 7:20
  S5: People in racing started to think, well, hang on. He's
• 7:22
  S5: got now too much power. Then the jealousies kind of
• 7:26
  S5: started at the same time he got into war with Victoria.
• 7:37
  S1: Now, you would think that all of that success, all
• 7:41
  S1: of the riches he's brought to racing, the way he's revived,
• 7:44
  S1: racing in New South Wales to make it a genuine
• 7:46
  S1: competitor to a traditionally dominant state like Victoria. You would
• 7:51
  S1: think he'd have a legion of fans in the racing community,
• 7:54
  S1: but he didn't. He doesn't, does he? He's very polarizing.
• 7:58
  S5: Why he did for a long time. He did for
• 8:01
  S5: a long time A up to including and after the
• 8:05
  S5: running of the first Everest in, what was it, 2017? Um,
• 8:09
  S5: which was the, the race that he came up with
• 8:12
  S5: to put on in the springtime to beat Victoria's dominance
• 8:16
  S5: of owning spring racing. He made racing and people in
• 8:20
  S5: racing untold riches. The breeders in particular through the sale
• 8:24
  S5: of racehorses. But people in racing over time. He's very, um,
• 8:32
  S5: very dictatorial. He's very his way or the highway. And
• 8:36
  S5: people in racing started to think, well, hang on, he's
• 8:39
  S5: got now too much power. Then the jealousies kind of
• 8:42
  S5: started at the same time he got into war with Victoria.
• 8:47
  S5: And so the Victorians thought he was an upstart until
• 8:50
  S5: he wasn't an upstart until he was the real deal wins.
• 8:54
  S5: The court case comes up with the Everest Knox. Knox
• 8:57
  S5: around the Victorian establishment of of the running of racing.
• 9:02
  S5: And next thing you know he was at loggerheads and
• 9:04
  S5: everyone was brawling. And this is the perfect time for
• 9:07
  S5: him to get out. 21 years is a long time.
• 9:10
  S1: So his position at Racing New South Wales as CEO
• 9:15
  S1: is on shaky ground at the moment. He's been involved
• 9:17
  S1: in dust ups. There may be a time here for
• 9:20
  S1: him to be able to jump, to be able to go.
• 9:23
  S1: He could go to the NRL. Is that possible though
• 9:26
  S1: at the NRL? Could he be executive chairman? That is
• 9:29
  S1: a very unusual set up. Lots of other codes, even
• 9:32
  S1: businesses of that size. They have a CEO who runs
• 9:36
  S1: the business makes it go. You have a chair who
• 9:39
  S1: runs the board sets strategy. Rarely do you have these
• 9:43
  S1: two things in one. So is that possible? And what
• 9:46
  S1: would need to happen for him to be able to
• 9:48
  S1: do that at the NRL?
• 9:50
  S5: Overall, in most circumstances, corporate governance, it's not a great model.
• 9:54
  S5: We know that. And the evidence is the world over
• 9:58
  S5: that you have a board, board sets direction and the
• 10:01
  S5: CEOs and the executive management, you know, do the plans
• 10:05
  S5: and all that sort of stuff and report back to
• 10:06
  S5: the board. Now, Peter V'landys, the difficulty for V'landys is
• 10:11
  S5: he gets, you know, a little over $200,000 a year
• 10:14
  S5: to be the chair of the NRL, but he earns
• 10:16
  S5: well in excess of $1 million as the CEO of
• 10:18
  S5: Racing New South Wales. He can give that up any
• 10:20
  S5: day he wants, but how's he going to earn $1
• 10:22
  S5: million for all of his talents? And when you start
• 10:25
  S5: earning $1 million and you're living at Hunters Hill, like
• 10:29
  S5: you get used to the money. So, so, you know,
• 10:31
  S5: he wants to keep a job of that size and
• 10:34
  S5: he should have it.
• 10:35
  S1: But the only place he can really find.
• 10:37
  S5: The.
• 10:37
  S1: NRL, NRL, Andrew Abdo I believe was paid about 1.5
• 10:41
  S1: million a year as a base salary. So off he
• 10:44
  S1: goes over there. His salary may well stay flat.
• 10:48
  S5: It'll be it'd stay flat and he'd be fine. But
• 10:51
  S5: to do it, to become the executive chair would require
• 10:53
  S5: a constitutional change. So the NRL was established after the
• 10:57
  S5: Super League war ended, and the old ARL and News
• 11:00
  S5: Corporation got back together and they came up with a
• 11:04
  S5: new set of rules and everything about how the game
• 11:06
  S5: will run. And they established the NRL and quite rightly
• 11:09
  S5: at the time and on purpose by design, to the
• 11:13
  S5: credit of both sides, they made the rules pretty strict,
• 11:16
  S5: so they'd have to be able to change the rules
• 11:18
  S5: for him to do both jobs. Now I can tell
• 11:20
  S5: you for a fact there'll be two ING and fro ING,
• 11:22
  S5: just as the same as there'll be in racing. There'll
• 11:25
  S5: be lobbying going on over the new CEO. They'll be
• 11:28
  S5: lobbying and people wanting this the game so awash with money.
• 11:32
  S5: The end of the day, if the states aren't happy,
• 11:34
  S5: they'll just get more money. I'm just telling you, this
• 11:37
  S5: will happen. If he wants to do that job, he'll
• 11:40
  S5: do it. And I'm telling you that I believe that
• 11:43
  S5: on July 15th, when the handover happens from Andrew Abdo,
• 11:46
  S5: when he leaves the NRL and Peter takes over as
• 11:50
  S5: executive chairman and begins his four months long service leave
• 11:52
  S5: at racing, he won't go back to racing after that.
• 11:54
  S1: I think that's right. I mean, it speaks to what
• 11:58
  S1: you discussed earlier, which is the the network and relationships
• 12:02
  S1: and loyalty that he has built, not just in public
• 12:05
  S1: life but within the league will, will.
• 12:08
  S5: Will carry the day, will carry the day in rugby league.
• 12:11
  S5: So whereas in racing, the walls have closed in on
• 12:15
  S5: him a little bit, it hasn't in rugby league like
• 12:18
  S5: you've seen it Bevan. You've been at rugby league games
• 12:21
  S5: and Peter V'landys is walking to the ground down the street.
• 12:23
  S5: People get selfies with him, they mob him.
• 12:26
  S1: I've been to to Vegas with him twice and he's like,
• 12:29
  S1: I've seen him walk through the corridors and he's swamped.
• 12:33
  S1: He's swamped. Everyone wants an administrator and deep down he'll
• 12:37
  S1: brush it off and, you know, pretend to be humble.
• 12:40
  S1: He loves it. He loves that. The same thing happens
• 12:43
  S1: at the Everest when I've seen him at the Everest.
• 12:45
  S1: If people get a look at him there, they're all
• 12:47
  S1: over him. So I guess that to that point, what
• 12:51
  S1: does this mean for fans and the game itself.
• 12:54
  S5: If he does.
• 12:55
  S1: This? Yeah.
• 12:56
  S5: I think it'll be status quo. Um, I think they'll
• 13:00
  S5: see more ideas and more innovation. All of these things
• 13:03
  S5: that have happened on the field in recent years that
• 13:05
  S5: have sped the game up like the repeat sets of six.
• 13:09
  S5: They're all the creation. Or like someone might have had
• 13:11
  S5: the idea, but it's Peter who's going, yeah, we're going
• 13:13
  S5: to do that. And and so I think fans won't
• 13:17
  S5: see much difference at all. I think administratively the code
• 13:22
  S5: will without Andrew unless they get a good look, he'll
• 13:26
  S5: need a really strong chief operating officer.
• 13:28
  S1: Yes. Because the dynamic between V'landys and Abdo that I've
• 13:32
  S1: observed is you have the sort of the visionary leader
• 13:36
  S1: comes up with the big, bold, slightly crazy strategies that
• 13:40
  S1: is that is Peter. But it does take someone meticulous, methodical,
• 13:45
  S1: more grounded, like an Andrew Abdo to make that stuff happen.
• 13:49
  S1: But to be the boring process guy, is this not
• 13:55
  S1: too much power in the hands of one man? Is
• 13:57
  S1: that a risk now? It may be. It may be
• 13:59
  S1: a reward in that it pays off. But there's also
• 14:01
  S1: a risk there as well.
• 14:03
  S5: It is. Um, and I think in a corporate governance sense,
• 14:07
  S5: it is a risk, but I, I'm just being a
• 14:10
  S5: realist here. It's a risk that the NRL as a
• 14:15
  S5: collective and I'm talking about the clubs and everyone will
• 14:17
  S5: be willing to take, you know, like there'll be some
• 14:20
  S5: hard bargains driven. Everyone will want their pound of flesh
• 14:23
  S5: out of him. But at the end of the day,
• 14:26
  S5: he's made this thing way more successful than it was
• 14:29
  S5: a decade ago. And they've all ridden off the success.
• 14:33
  S5: They're not going to get rid of him. No way.
• 14:38
  S1: Bruni, fascinating to talk to you. Your sport department is
• 14:42
  S1: going to be very busy over the next couple of months,
• 14:44
  S1: following all the twists and turns here. What's your tip
• 14:46
  S1: for State of Origin tonight?
• 14:48
  S5: Uh, I think Queensland will win by 12 points. I
• 14:52
  S5: just think look, I'm a Queenslander even though I'm the
• 14:55
  S5: sports editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. I think their
• 14:58
  S5: spines better.
• 14:59
  S1: Okay, you've heard it. You've heard it here first. Thanks
• 15:02
  S1: for joining us.
• 15:03
  S5: Thanks, Bevan.
• 15:06
  S1: In other news, today 19 Australian women and children linked
• 15:10
  S1: to Islamic State arrived in Australia from Syria last night.
• 15:14
  S1: Property investors have exited the market due to increased interest
• 15:18
  S1: rates or tax changes, new data shows. And if you
• 15:22
  S1: want more rugby league, follow our weekly NRL show 4020
• 15:26
  S1: with Neil Breen, Christian Nicolussi and Zak Bailey. You can
• 15:31
  S1: read more at the age.com.au or sm.com.au. Today's episode was
• 15:40
  S1: produced by Kai Wong with help from Josh towers. Our
• 15:44
  S1: executive producer is Tammy Mills, and our podcasts are overseen
• 15:49
  S1: by Lisa Muxworthy and Tom McKendrick. If you like our show,
• 15:53
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• 15:56
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