Haworth's loss leaves bitter taste

The Rugby League has lost another chief executive, with Peter Haworth departing after two months in charge and warning that attitudes within the game need to change.

The Rugby League has lost another chief executive, with Peter Haworth departing after two months in charge and warning that attitudes within the game need to change.

Haworth, a business consultant from Surrey, took on the job on a part-time, interim basis with the RFL after drawing up a report into its administrative structure. Now, a matter of weeks later, he has left to take up a post with a major European company, having failed to work out a compromise with the League that would have enabled him to carry on.

"I've been very happy here, but I've been concerned about one or two things that helped me make my final decision," Haworth said. "The game still has a lot of work to do. What it needs to do is rid itself of the petty politics. Somehow that has to happen."

The sudden departure of the 52-year-old Haworth, who had no background in a game that has great difficulty in achieving any unity of direction, leaves a three-man directorate of Dave Callaghan, Greg McCallum and Peter Webster in charge for what a spokesman called "the foreseeable future".

That is a return to the way the governing body was run after the resignation - under duress - of the previous chief executive, Neil Tunnicliffe, and before the arrival of Haworth.

Callaghan, the League's director of communications, said: "The RFL would like to thank Peter for his work throughout the year and we wish him all the best for the future."

Super League is also without a chief executive, following the resignation of Ian Robson to take up a similar post with Sport Scotland, also after a relatively brief tenure. The RFL and Super League are due to move into a new shared headquarters - also incorporating the amateur game's governing body, Barla - but each separate organisation still feels the need to appoint its own leader.