Meeting on Norway Governance – 23.08.23
Brief notes / follow-up
Participants:
– Per Thorkildsen, President, Norwegian Rugby Federation (NRF)
– Jules Crossley Nilsen, Vice President, Norwegian Rugby Federation (NRF)
– Erik Flaagan, Norwegian Rugby Federation, Legal Representative
– Nils Einar Aas, Norges Idrettsforbundet (NIF), General Secretary
– Tord Jordet, Norges Idrettsforbundet (NIF), Legal
– Sondre Gullord, Vice President 2, Norges Idrettsforbundet (NIF)
– Yvonne Nolan, General Counsel – World Rugby (WR), Federation – legal
– Colum Lavery, Head of Governance – World Rugby (WR)
– Jens Aage Skare Nielsen, Regional Partnership Manager – World Rugby (WR)
Reason for meeting:
– World rugby letter dated 2. august 2023 stating among others:
o The current NRF governance structure appears to include membership of a sport other
than Rugby Union
o WR therefore has concerns about NRF meeting the membership criteria set out in World
Rugby’s Byelaws.
Takeaways from the meeting:
– General agreement at the meeting that the present structure does not comply with WR
regulations.
– NIF acknowledged the importance of upholding the membership and confirmed their assistance
to NRF in doing so.
– NRF with NIF assistance will protect the autonomy of World Rugby until a new structure is
operative.
– NRF to work out a new structure to be confirmed by NIF and respecting their byelaws, – a
structure which accommodates other sports in question and allows each sport to operate
independently independently in a way that does not expose or take advantage of World Rugby
or NRF investments.
– The new structure to live up to World Rugby byelaws, and specially takes the below into account
for NRF – (governing Rugby Union in Norway):
• Must be able to have autonomous control of the Union activities and operation.
• Be in control of its own constitution and operate with its own Union boards, finances,
strategies, and sport.
– Noncompliance with the World Rugby regulation, e.g. continued operation contrary to
membership terms will entail a suspension of WR membership, – an action World Rugby
hopefully does not have to take
