Dan Leo

[Heathen]

Wow, just read this :

https://www.pacificrugbywelfare.com/blog/prpw-world-rugby-nomination-francis-kean

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Bloody hell...

[westwaleswasp]

One of the most chilling reads on this or any other forum.

[Chunky24]

Looks like the letter did it's job

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/52365801

[WonkyWasp]

That is one brave and courageous man driven by desperation. All success Dan.

[Rossm]

Bill Beaumont's key supporter forced to quit World Rugby Council

In today's Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/21/blow-for-bill-beaumont-world-rugby-union-council-bid-as-francis-kean-forced-to-resign

[13thWarrior]

Fascinating reading, thanks for sharing. Well done to Dan Leo, very brave to step up and write that. I hope there are no personal repercussions from shady types connected to Kean.

Also, it seems a bit odd that it seems to be the homophobia angle that is being held up as the reason to oust Kean, and not the alleged murder (convicted of manslaughter) or the arson, the abuse of power, and so on. The homophibia is bad enough and would rightly see him kicked out, but there is all the other shit as well.

Beaumont not doing great in all of this, surely he must have known about all these allegations? Also, the French federation looks very poorly in all of this. Building academies in Fiji to poach players, and look who backed Kean's nomination to join the Exco, and who happens to be running to be Beaumont's (a supported of Kean) Vice chairman... Bernard Laporte.

[Heathen]

I just wonder how much money the FFR might have been directing in a certain direction?

[andermt]

Reading the open letter from Dan Leo is like reading a murder mystery book.

World Rugby is putting itself in a bad place with some of these decisions, what I found really worrying is that it was apparently the homophobic language that was deemed the key reason he stood down, understandable, but not the murder, beatings, bribery or intimidation.

[DGP Wasp]

Yes, I also found that strange.  It's great that rugby and society is becoming ever more tolerant and these things are now widely seen as entirely unacceptable.  However, what does it say about World Rugby that murder, arson, corruption and backing a military coup against a democratically elected government were tolerated for a number of years, and only when he used homophobic language did they feel compelled to take action?

[Skippy]

The homophobic language appears like it’s being portrayed as the only bit of new(ish) news. That allows them to spin the reasons as to why action is being taken now while dodging accusations about why something was not done before.

[baldpaul101]

Unfortunately, whilst everybody knows that he's been involved in "murder, arson, corruption and backing a military coup against a democratically elected government "
none of its been proved, because him and his mates control the government, the police & the judiciary.

That makes removing someone like him from an official position actually quite difficult, and would lay World Rugby open to looking guilty of racism (remember most of the pacific nations think the rest of the rugby world exploits them, not without some justification!)
kean would be very able to portray himself as standing up for Pacific rugby against the white led, racist Rugby authorities. He could very quickly become a martyr.

It may be that homophobic comments is the only thing they can get him on, like Al Capone & tax evasion.

[andermt]

Unfortunately, whilst everybody knows that he's been involved in "murder, arson, corruption and backing a military coup against a democratically elected government "
none of its been proved, because him and his mates control the government, the police & the judiciary.

He actually went to prison for the Murder (although it was downgraded to Manslaughter) and they let him out very early.

[Wiltshire Wasp]

Released early - is that because he paid the bill?

[baldpaul101]

I realise he did time for manslaughter, however you could then argue that he'd paid his dept & needs to be re-rehabilitated etc etc.