English rugby union is ‘broken’: how can it be fixed?

Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), has vowed to “sort the game out” amid a financial crisis that has engulfed the sport in England. 

Earlier this month Worcester Warriors were suspended for the remainder of the 2022-23 Premiership season, and relegated to the Championship, following the club’s collapse into partial liquidation. And now Wasps have been forced into administration will be relegated from the top tier of English club rugby.

The demise of Worcester had already thrown the Premiership “into turmoil”, said BBC Sport. And with Wasps also departing, the “financial viability of the league has come sharply into focus”.

Sweeney believes the current model is “broken” and clubs have been “living beyond their means” for too long. Premiership clubs were “losing £4m to £5m a year” prior to the pandemic and Covid has “exacerbated that”. The sport has been “relying on wealthy benefactors for some time”.

What happened at Worcester? 

Founded in 1871, Worcester climbed the rugby pyramid from the eighth tier to the Premiership, said Phil Wilkinson-Jones in the Worcester News.

In August the club’s accounts were frozen after a winding-up petition was issued by HMRC, then in September WRFC Trading Limited, the company that owns the rugby club, was placed in administration and suspended from all competitions. This month WRFC Players Limited, the company that employs the players and staff, was wound up in court. 

Worcester ended up in trouble after being “saddled with more than £25m of debt”, including at least £6m in unpaid tax, said PA Sport. Players and staff “had not received their full wages” and a lack of funds led to “major operational shortcomings”. 

Worcester’s director of rugby Steve Diamond said the club’s winding-up order was the “darkest day for English rugby”. On 5 October Diamond tweeted that “we thought we could turn the tanker around”, but it’s ended up “like the Titanic”. The “ship has sunk” and the captains are “nowhere to be seen”.

And what about Wasps? 

Four-time Premiership winners and two-time European champions Wasps will follow Worcester into England’s second tier – “provided they can find new owners and continue to exist”, said Michael Cantillon on Sky Sports. They are one of England’s “biggest and most famous” clubs, but today announced that 167 staff – including the entire playing and coaching staff – are being made redundant. 

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/sport/rugby-union/958207/english-rugby-union-is-broken-how-can-it-be-fixed