Which is exactly what I did; he's the wrong person to lead a sport that wants to be taken seriously, appear credible and hopefully, break away from a set of stereotypes that Big Nige, unfortunately, encapsulates quite conveniently.

This.

If he cannot see what is wrong with wearing a union rose whilst representing the RFL, he shouldn't be involved.

The one absolute certainty is that you wouldn't see the reverse situation, ever.
He should be promoting our sport all of the time, even if he goes to a Union game.

Can you imagine Jurgen Klopp wearing a Man U scarf

It's probably for the best he wore the red rose scarf...let people think he is 'one of them' because he is not really the image we want portraying at the head of our sport.

What if he goes to Wembley to watch the football wearing an England Football scarf?

Don't see the issue

Big Nige was attending the London Broncos v Hull KR game at Trailfinders. The photo is in the bar post match and the CEO of the RFL is talking to David Hughes. Just for the record the coat worn by David Hughes at the match was a London Broncos coat.

During the match Big Nige was sitting with Wayne Bennett the England coach who is in the UK with Brisbane Broncos for the World Club Challenge. I would assume that he came down to speak with his employee.

If that England scarf includes the 3 Lions then he should ask himself the question:

"As the Chief Executive of the RFL is it appropriate for me to wear the symbol of another sporting body?"

...and your point is what? or is this a post of clarification??

The hat's what they sold the TV rights for.

Absolutely right.... Regardless of what sporting event, or whenever in public, if he's going to wear anything with a sports brand on it, as the head of the game, it must be rugby league branding.

The coca-cola analogy is absolutely spot on. Even individuals who advertise coke have it in their contracts that they can never be photographed drinking Pepsi - they have to avoid it in public or lose their money. It's ridiculous that he hasn't thought of this, and even more ridiculous if he isn't brought to task over it.

It may seem a small and fairly insignificant thing to some people, but he is literally supporting our main competitor.

Just as an aside, similar to the Coke thing, if Leeds players are seen wearing sports brands other than ISC (apart from footwear or undergarments/Lycra type armour), they're heavily fined and formally disciplined. As I'm guessing is the case with all clubs....

This is a massive error in judgement and yet another sign of the lack of professionalism at the top of our game. Further enhances the 'small time' perception of rugby league.

I don't have a problem with the way he looks or dresses. My problem is Rugby League has gone backwards under his tenure.

Our nige is taking questions on the rfl's Twitter page from 4pm. Perhaps we might get a few questions in to him which he probably won't answer.

Here's his rather pathetic justification when asked the question:

NW: I don't think it's inappropriate to wear an event scarf on a cold night.

Clare North @ClareNorth
@TheRFL do you really think it's appropriate to be wearing an England RU scarf as CEO of RL? From a competitor and political POV.

In what other organisation would it be acceptable for the CEO to wear branding of their direct competitor or be seen purchasing goods from their direct competitor? It just wouldn't happen.

For him to do it, was at best, an awful error of judgement - to then publicly defend the position is unforgivable. If he'd come out and said 'actually, yes, it was an error of judgement, but it was the only scarf available' we could at least think he'd learned the lesson. As it is, he doesn't see anything wrong with it.

His lack of results and general decline of the game in the UK should have seen him ousted on failure to achieve his KPI's (though I doubt he even has any targets) long before now, but this is the final straw. For me, his position is untenable, but he appears not to be accountable to anyone for anything. If he were a part of the NRL organisation, he'd be long gone - the clubs just wouldn't accept it.