'Let's wipe all our debts and start again? I honestly don't get it'

Exeter boss Rob Baxter has launched a stinging rebuke of people who believe that the financially stricken Wasps and Worcester should be exonerated from their troubles and simply allowed to start all over without having paid any penalties. Both clubs are currently suspended by the RFU from participating in the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership and face automatic relegation to the Championship for the 2023/24 season.

They are also threatened with losing the perpetual shares awarded to them in 2005 when top-flight clubs and entitled shareholders were given a percentage of the league’s central income as well as voting rights on key issues.

It has been claimed that the potential loss of these P shares has affected negotiations with prospective buyers interested in taking over these debt-ridden clubs, but Baxter has insisted there should be no leeway given by the RFU/Premiership Rugby as the precedent set would leave all Premiership clubs believing they can simply go into administration every time there is a financial issue, wipe their debts and return without having suffered any punishment.

Baxter was speaking on Wednesday morning at his media briefing ahead of this Saturday’s Exeter versus Saracens game at Sandy Park, a return to normality for the Chiefs after they had their match last Saturday versus Wasps cancelled and replaced by an A team friendly with Bristol that still managed to attract an attendance of 6,000.

The Exeter DoR embarked on a lengthy answer that defended the current rules of the Premiership and while he sympathised with Wasps and Worcester supporters, Baxter insisted a price must be paid by these clubs for falling into administration. “When you say is it right the stance the RFU are taking or PRL, the one bit that surprises me that hasn’t been reported is what is the alternative?

“The alternative is a rugby business in the Premiership can go into administration, can organise a pre-pack so they don’t lose their position in the Premiership, they don’t lose their P shares and they wipe their debts. Are you saying that is what we should have done? That is what seems to have been suggested. Are we really saying that?

“Because if that is the truth then why doesn’t every club in the Premiership that has got debts, organise a pre-pack with an administrator, go into administration, keep their P shares, so basically keep everything that is going to be of value to them and wipe the debts to everyone they owed money to?

“That is what everyone said. If you do it for one club are you saying that is the right thing to do? That is what surprises me about this argument around the P share allocations. This is the problem. I feel for people at Wasps, I feel for people at Worcester and more than anything else I really feel for their supporters because their supporters have just given.

“When you are a supporter you just give. You give your money, you give your time, you give your emotion to it and what you get back is your entertainment and your buy-in so that is why you do it. They are the people who have really, really missed out.

“People who get involved in professional sport, you have got to be pretty aware that it is a business and things come and go so I feel very much for all the people involved at Wasps and Worcester, but that is totally different argument.

“To sit here and go, we should have a system where you can wipe off your debts and keep the P shares and keep your place in the Premiership, how can Premiership Rugby run a business where it is okay to go into multiple administrations every time you run into debt?

“We’d have no confidence in the business, we’d have no confidence in the TV deal, why would a sponsor ever come in to sponsor a rugby club where in theory if you feel like it, you can just go into administration to wipe your debt? There have to be some repercussions and that is why those rules were put in place.

“Those rules were put into place at the start just so we couldn’t as businesses do exactly that, we couldn’t just wipe our debts and start again with no repercussions. I’m really surprised that there seems to be such a big argument about it. To me it seems to be the most common sense thing, it has to be a fundamental rule. Surely. Do you guys not agree? I can’t get my head around it, the argument on P shares.”

It was put to Baxter that the issues at Wasps and Worcester were exacerbated by the pandemic, but he wasn’t buying that line of debate. “So you allow them to do it and then you allow Wasps to do it and then you allow every club in the Premiership to do it because we are all in exactly the same position, we all went through exactly the same process over the last two, three years.

“That is what I am saying. That is what the argument seems to be. The argument seems to be, let’s all do a pre-pack, let’s wipe all our debts and start again. I honestly don’t get it. I don’t get how we think that is an argument.”

Another strand that Baxter was dismissive of was that at the rate the Premiership is going in losing its clubs, Exeter could soon run out of opponents to play. “We do need to remember there are quite a few good clubs in the Championship,” he argued. “We came from there ourselves. I have no doubt there are other clubs in the Championship who are capable of stepping up and growing over a period of time.

“So actually running out of opposition is not my biggest concern because I’m sure some of those clubs would stand up and step forward and we would get on with things. The actually honouring of the fixtures and getting on with stuff and having no opposition to play, they are different arguments to watch has actually happened at Wasps and Worcester.”