By Matt Hardy
Worcester Warriors have been handed a deadline of noon today by the Rugby Football Union to prove they have sufficient funds to stage matches safely – or face suspension from all men’s and women’s competitions.
The troubled Premiership club could be thrown out of the English top flight and other competitions as a result of the RFU move.
Last night’s warning came as the current directors – Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham – admitted they were looking to sell the club, which is in a significant amount of debt, if a buyer could secure its future and satisfy creditors.
A Premiership Rugby statement said: “The local authority [in Worcester] have not yet provided the club a General Safety Certificate to allow matches to be played at Sixways.
“Any suspension [imposed by the RFU] may be lifted once the club has more security of funding and is able to evidence its ability to hold matches safely.”
Ben Cisneros of Morgan Sport Law told City A.M. that the RFU move “may only be a precursor to more serious action”. He added: “If their inability to fulfil fixtures causes other clubs financial losses, Worcester may become liable to compensation – if they survive.”
The ongoing saga at the financially stricken club took a further twist yesterday morning when the Department of Culture, Media and Sport had to retract a letter which implied the club had instructed the governmental division to put the West Midlands team into administration.
“The decision to place the club into administration was made by the club’s directors,” the letter said. “The club’s directors formally requested that DCMS appointed administrators on their behalf.”
DCMS later clarified its comments. “The correspondence has been sent in error, we are currently looking into this and we apologise for the difficulty this has caused for the players, staff and fans,” it said.
“The Worcester Warriors club has not entered administration and the Department continues to work tirelessly with them, the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby on options around their future survival.”
It is understood that most non-playing employees at the club are working on 65 per cent of their wages. There are also suggestions that some are working without pay.
One source at the West Midlands outfit told City A.M. about how even parts of the day-to-day operation, such as wifi and email accounts, were in doubt or cut off and that there is only hope, not confidence, in the club being able to fulfil Sunday’s fixture against Exeter.
It is thought that fewer than 500 tickets – excluding season tickets – have been sold for the match on Sunday, with fans seemingly voting with their feet against the situation.
But the governing body of the English game – the RFU – have now set the club a deadline which could see the side suspended from playing fixtures.
It does raise questions as to what financial contingency planning was ever in place among clubs, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union should one of the 13 teams go under given how late this call appears to be.
The current directors are, they claim, in the final stages of agreeing a deal with an unknown party but one of the unlucky bidders is still interested in the club.
Jim O’Toole is part of a bid alongside Atlas SportsTech. “My group is standing by ready to step in and fund the administration process if and when the club enters or is put into administration,” he told City A.M.
Worcester managed to make the field for their opening fixture last week but the clock is now officially ticking on whether they’ll make the next. By 12 noon today the sport’s bigwigs will have their answer, and shortly afterwards we will too.
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