Tony Adams insisted on his first day as RFL president that he is not trying to copy Sir Clive Woodward’s disastrous cross-code switch.
The former Arsenal and England football captain formally started his new role at an RFL meeting in Doncaster on Wednesday, admitting he doesn’t know an awful lot about the game.
Rugby Union World Cup-winning coach Woodward had an ill-fated 13-month spell as a performance director at Southampton during 2005 and 2006. But Adams, 52, has stressed that rugby league’s links with his Sporting Chance clinic and a desire to lift the sport’s profile are the real reasons for his unlikely appointment.
Adams, who was manager of Spanish League side Granada two years ago, said: “The people are what I’m about here.
“I don’t want to get involved in the technical side of the game.
“I’m not sitting here like Woodward did when he went in at Southampton – I don’t claim to be an expert when it comes to this sport, it’s not what I’m about. I’m here for profile and, if I can shed some light on this great sport, then I’m here to do that.
“Since I’ve been watching it in recent years, I’ve come to love the honest, open approach and the physical side of the game. I’ve been bored out of my brains at some recent football games with all the passing from side to side. I don’t want to say that I hate football and that I’m all about rugby league. Player welfare is my main concern.
“I’m the president, and it’s about cementing relationships.”
Adams, who spoke openly as a footballer about his battle with alcohol addiction, has already worked extensively with rugby league players through his addiction clinic, and has been impressed by their attitude.
He said: “I’m generalising but the guys have been very humble. It’s been great for my charity to have these big, humble guys break down in tears in a room with other 23-year-old gambling addicts, footballers.
“It’s really made a good combination and helped everyone concerned. Rugby league has representatives going into a prison and mentoring the offenders in there.
“That’s grand stuff, really human stuff – I don’t see any international footballers going into prison and mentoring offenders, it’s just not going to happen.”
The former Arsenal skipper, speaking on the same day that former FA chief executive Brian Barwick stepped down from his role as RFL chairman, went on: “There are programmes out there and, anything I can do for them, I’d do. It was a really straightforward process to take this on, it made so much sense.
“Sporting Chance has an unbelievable brand and I wouldn’t get in bed with just anybody, I don’t do that. We have 20 years in the making of Sporting Chance and we have to protect that.
“I do this as the RFL is a great brand. It is very positive and it is going forward.”
