Worcester future unclear despite owners saying player wages paid
The close of play yesterday, the last day of the month, was the deadline for troubled Premiership rugby club Worcester Warriors to pay their players and staff.
But as we reach September, just a week out from the new Premiership season, it’s still not certain as to whether Worcester will take the field against London Irish next Saturday. Here are three of the potential scenarios that the West Midlands club could face in the coming days and weeks.
Status Quo
Quite simply, Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring own Worcester until, well, they don’t. There is a lot of talk surrounding potential bids for the club – the most public being the Jim O’Toole–Atlas SportsTech proposal which is said to have American capital behind it.
But until the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted, if they are at all, the club belongs to its existing owners and will remain locked under its winding-up petition for the time being.
Director of Rugby Steve Diamond yesterday said that the players remained unpaid and that his club’s planned pre-season trip to Scotland tomorrow would not take place because it was “unethical for professional players to play a full-on game with the risk of injury and the real possibility of no employment to follow”.
But last night the owners said that they had “secured funds” for player contracts – which keeps the squad at the club for another month – but that “non-playing staff” will receive just “65 per cent” of their salaries overnight or today, with the rest being paid in five working days.
If the status quo remains, it will go down to the wire to see whether the current owners can find the funds to keep their squad and wider club together – a number of players are being looked at by other clubs and could be free to walk if they’re unpaid.
Newcomers
If an ownership change does happen in the higher levels of English rugby, the Rugby Football Union looks at four key aspects of the favoured bid: financial stability under new ownership, the reputability of the new ownership, whether there’s any conflict of interest in owning the club, and any other aspects they see fit.
Should one of the bids satisfy these tests, satisfy the Department of Culture, Media and Sport – who are owed £14m in Covid-19 repayments – and satisfy the current ownership then the cogs of a transition can begin to move.
O’Toole’s bid has already expressed how elements of the club would go into administration but that usually comes with a 14-day notice period and a 14-day cooling off period, so it could be October before anything actually changes – which could be too late.
Close the door behind you, Worcester
There were reports recently surrounding a need for Premiership Rugby to have a clear understanding of where Worcester Warriors are financially by today, with the possibility of needing to reshape fixtures to accommodate what could become a 12-team league.
Earlier this week fellow Premiership outfit Saracens moved a pre-season match with Championship club Ampthill forward by a day on the off-chance that they would need to play a league fixture the following week – where originally they had a bye.
It appears, then, that contingency plans are being drawn up by the sport’s bigwigs to ensure that the league can continue.
Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor and chairman Martyn Phillips are expected to be quizzed later today at the season launch, where Worcester boss Diamond is also set to be in attendance.
But if the club are kicked out of the league due to their financial situation being unsolvable in the short term, questions will be raised around the long-term future of the club, where it belongs in the sport and what happens to its financial stake in the league.