Sale Appoint Steve Diamond as New CEO

Sale Sharks Rugby Club have appointed Steve Diamond as their new chief executive officer following Mick Hogan‘s decision to leave the club and continue their rise back to the forefront of Rugby in the north of England.

Current chief executive Mick Hogan has confirmed that he will be leaving the club at the end of January in order to take up a post with Rugby 2015, the organising body of the 2015 Rugby World Cup and Diamond looks set to replace him.

At present, Diamond is Sale’s executive director of sport and has been instrumental in helping the Sharks rise up the table with some shrewd signings in the off-season and tactical nous.

Having slid down the pecking order after the glory days of the early to mid-2000’s in which the club won European Challenge Cup titles in 2002 and 2005 and the Premiership in 2006, Sale found themselves struggling to stave off relegation.

Seemingly back on the rise, Sale are looking to make the most of the plight of neighbours Newcastle and Leeds and make themselves the biggest club in the region.

“What we will be doing in the new year with this club is promoting it to seize Manchester and take the North West,” Diamond told the Daily Telegraph.

“We’ve got grand plans, we are embryonic in what we are doing but we are proving that with a bit of direction and enthusiasm and not a lot of money – because we are spending far less than we have ever spent – we can go places.

“The owners are asking me, ‘how do we create a super northern club?’ and I am saying, ‘let’s get the foundations in place for the next year or so’.”

Sale are believed to be in advanced talks with rugby league side Salford City Reds about a groundshare deal for their recently-completed £26million, 12,000-capacity stadium at Barton.

Read what Mick Hogan has to say about Sale Sharks in his exclusive iSportconnect featured profile

Related discussion: Can Steve Diamond create a northern super club?