Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

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thebearisstilldeano
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Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by thebearisstilldeano »

How does he square being a pundit and sitting on the rugby committee of a club covered by the same broadcaster? I'm not suggesting any gain to himself, but surely these are incompatible roles?

"A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in which the personal interest of an individual or organization might adversely affect a duty owed to make decisions for the benefit of a third party.

The presence of a conflict of interest is independent of the occurrence of impropriety. "

What do we think?
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strawclearer
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by strawclearer »

Any 'difficulties' are for Kay to deal with in terms of his (working) relationships elsewhere in the Premiership. As far as Tigers are concerned, it's actually quite useful having him in regular, close proximity with all the other clubs and players.
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thebearisstilldeano
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by thebearisstilldeano »

Yes, I see the potential Strawclearer - but is that not in line with the definition of a conflict of interest as far as other clubs are concerned?
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by RagingBull »

Can you describe what the conflict of interest is?
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by Cardiff Tig »

Unless his role for BT is to divulge sensitive information about Tiger's board meetings then there is very little conflict of interest.

There's nothing stopping the rest of the board members talking to the media or giving their opinions of things to a wider audience
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by Tigerbeat »

At the time of the Cockerill departure, he was very careful what he said whilst with BT......gave nothing away that was confidential.
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thebearisstilldeano
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by thebearisstilldeano »

As a rugby committee member at Tigers he will have inside knowledge of what is happening at the club, which the club would expect to be kept confidential - his employer at BT will see that as valuable information for their viewers ( or might be shared in conversationin the course of chit chat before interviews with other clubs) and he must be careful at all time lest he break that confidentiality. How can the club take that risk?

As a BT pundit one would expect he could come into contact with information from other clubs that Tigers might value - yet other clubs must know this , meaning they are likely to hold back informaton - making him less effective as a "journalist".

After a couple of beers and with fat fingers, that's the short form explanation of why I believe there is a conflict of interest.

In my profession, I couldn't act as a journalist writing about clients I have as a PR practitioner and stay on the right side of either the NUJ code or CIPR or PRCA (professional bodies for PR) codes of conduct.

Happy to be put right and appreciative of the fact I'm raising the point because it's symptomatic of so many things I'm currently unhappy about with the way our club is being run.
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sam16111986
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by sam16111986 »

thebearisstilldeano wrote: Fri May 03, 2019 9:00 pm As a rugby committee member at Tigers he will have inside knowledge of what is happening at the club, which the club would expect to be kept confidential - his employer at BT will see that as valuable information for their viewers ( or might be shared in conversationin the course of chit chat before interviews with other clubs) and he must be careful at all time lest he break that confidentiality. How can the club take that risk?

As a BT pundit one would expect he could come into contact with information from other clubs that Tigers might value - yet other clubs must know this , meaning they are likely to hold back informaton - making him less effective as a "journalist".

After a couple of beers and with fat fingers, that's the short form explanation of why I believe there is a conflict of interest.

In my profession, I couldn't act as a journalist writing about clients I have as a PR practitioner and stay on the right side of either the NUJ code or CIPR or PRCA (professional bodies for PR) codes of conduct.

Happy to be put right and appreciative of the fact I'm raising the point because it's symptomatic of so many things I'm currently unhappy about with the way our club is being run.
:smt015 I'm sure this gets dragged up every few months. Kay has never to my knowledge divulged information he shouldn't and BT are happy to get the inside line on decisions once the Tigers board has taken them. It aids transparency for us fans which is beneficial all round.

I've never heard anything other than Ben acting in an entirely professional manner and to insinuate otherwise without any proof isn't on. His late father was quite handy at the law thing and so I'm sure there's some family friends he will have consulted before making any contractual arrangements.
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by thebearisstilldeano »

"So.... That's all good then"
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by Scuttle »

To my mind there is a difference between conflict of interest and confidentiality. I am not aware BK has ever breached any confidentiality, but I was surprised to hear him on Rugby Tonight suggesting Tigers could be relegated; whilst this is factually correct and as a pundit an acceptable thing to say, as a Tigers Board Member I would expect to hear him saying more positive and supportive things about the team's prospects. That for me is the conflict of interest; as a board member he should be seen and heard to be supporting the Club at all times. This has nothing to do with confidentiality.
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by CitizenSmiff »

My issue with Kay sitting on the board is that he doesn't appear to be very good at the role.
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by JWM »

:smt023 Fnarr, fnarr ... etc :smt044
CitizenSmiff wrote: Sat May 04, 2019 1:18 am My issue with Kay sitting on the board is that he doesn't appear to be very good at the role.
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by jgriffin »

JWM wrote: Sat May 04, 2019 1:53 am :smt023 Fnarr, fnarr ... etc :smt044
CitizenSmiff wrote: Sat May 04, 2019 1:18 am My issue with Kay sitting on the board is that he doesn't appear to be very good at the role.
My issue is with what the hell he and Underwood have been doing since his arrival.
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by JP14 »

While, as established by others on this thread, there probably hasn’t been a conflict of interest, I’ve always felt Kay has been restricted as a pundit on BT Sport, when he’s speaking about Tigers, it feels like he’s expressing the board’s opinion, not always his. How he hasn’t publicly apologised yet for his appointment of O’Connor, I do not know!
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Re: Ben Kay BT Pundit and committee member

Post by sapajo »

Kay is all mouth and no substance. He has the temerity to criticise Tigers match performances live on BT TV as if he has nothing to do with the bilge served up on the pitch. Whereas in fact the opposite is true when he is on the rugby committee with Underwood. He is part of the problem in my opinion.
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