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The five clubs most affected by the grim Premiership outlook
By PA
London Irish could be the latest victims of the financial crisis gripping the Gallagher Premiership. Here the PA news agency looks at the clubs most affected by the grim outlook.
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GONE: Worcester
The first club placed into administration back in September, Worcester’s future is still uncertain despite being taken over by Jim O’Toole’s Atlas Group.
Entrance into the second-tier Championship has been blocked by the RFU for their failure to meet certain conditions and their plan of joining with Stourbridge and relaunching in the fifth tier appears dead in the water.
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GONE: Wasps
The month after Worcester folded, Wasps followed them into administration as the league suffered the crushing blow of losing one of English rugby’s most famous brands.
Further misery was to come as having targeted rebirth in the Championship, the failure to meet certain conditions forced the RFU to revoke their license and demote them to the foot of the rugby pyramid.
TEETERING: London Irish
Burdened by debts of around £30million and with owner Mick Crossan desperate to sell, London Irish are shaping up to become the next club to be removed from the Premiership.
The RFU has granted an extended deadline of June 6 for either the proposed takeover by an American consortium to be completed or for Crossan to prove he can finance Irish for the entire 2023/24 season. All staff must also be paid the outstanding 50 per cent of wages owed for May.
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SHAKY FOUNDATIONS: Leicester
Leicester needed an emergency cash injection of £13m from directors Peter Tom and Tom Scott to address what chief executive Andrea Pinchen described as “very challenging conditions”.
A letter from the club to shareholders sent in March stated that if the funding was not approved, there would be no option but to appoint administrators.
SHAKY FOUNDATIONS: Exeter
Even Exeter, one of the few clubs in the pre-pandemic era to operate at a profit, were forced to take special measures in December.
Chiefs owner Tony Rowe bought a stake in a hotel owned by the club in order for it to service its debts, including covid loans issued by the Government. Rowe’s intervention has shored up the finances for the time being.
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Who is actually behind the proposed US purchase of London Irish.
Why the secrecy?
Well it's dead now but the reality all along has been they wanted to buy Hazelwood and profit by using it as a training base for all of the NFL London games and perhaps even a future permanent London based NFL franchise. That pursuit was never about rugby.
Lazy journalism. Exeter & Leicester were both restructuring debt on bank loans with sky rocketing interest rates accrued from covid debt. To get ahead of financial problems in the near future. With both clubs now restructured financially , Both on solid ground not as listed in this article as 'Shaky foundations'.
Yes this would of be the case 3 months ago if they hadn't of secured the financial restructuring but to put them in with London Irish as a 'clubs with a grim outlook' now
is complete shock factor journalism.
The problems seem to exist because the control of the Premiership doesn't seem to be professionally run in "A JOINED UP WAY " with to many different interested parties not working together , if this continues I'm afraid very soon it could implode. We need all interested parties to get together and build a framework to regulate the professional running of a very important Premiership.
Jules.
I can't believe PRL thought it could expand to 14. At this point it looks like it'd be lucky to have 10 clubs by the end of 23-24. Look I love relegation but this league has to be ring-fenced at least for the foreseeable future. Only way for it to maybe survive.
Quite frankly, my dream scenario at this point would be a British & Irish league. 8 English clubs, the 4 Irish provinces, 2 Scottish & 2 Welsh regions. Operate the same way URC does now. Four groups of 4, (Ireland, Scots-Welsh, England North, England South), 18 matches.
Yes I know this would hurt Saffa and Italy. Probably moreso Saffa. Top 10 in Italy is decently popular but also Italian clubs could maybe join the French system. Saffa would truly be on their own, they'd have to make an 8 team Currie Cup work as a top flight, or return to a 16 team Super Rugby and suffer the time zone issues.
But a British & Irish league would probably seriously benefit England and Wales. The Irish are fine now but would also be fine in a B&I league. Scots also seem fine now but playing more locally would likely be even better.
I’d love a British and Irish league too. It would be difficult to achieve right now. The URC has improved so much since the South Africans came into the league. It would be hard to leave them in the lurch now. Though in the long run the travelling could become unsustainable (if it isn’t already).