Article from today's Daily Telegraph (1051hrs. 5.10.22)
Worcester Warriors to be relegated after 22-second court hearing
Worcester Warriors are on the brink of being thrown out of the Premiership after their joint administrator admitted a takeover was “unlikely” to be concluded in the coming days.
Julie Palmer, of Begbies Traynor, told Telegraph Sport that the club’s suspension from playing will be made permanent by Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL) by the end of next week, sparking an exodus of players and staff.
The news came as players and staff lost their jobs on Wednesday, as the company that pays them, Worcester Players Ltd, was liquidated at the High Court.
A statement read: "Players and staff at Worcester Warriors are to see their contracts terminated, as a key part of the club has just been wound up at the High Court. This morning HMRC has been pursuing the club for unpaid taxes, following a winding up petition back in August.
"Judge Briggs has just instructed that WRFC Players Limited – through which players and staff are contracted and paid – is wound up. All debts remain outstanding. A winding up petition against WRFC Trading Limited – which remains in administration – has been suspended.
"The club had no representation in court."
Takeover talks for Worcester Trading Ltd will continue but Palmer conceded any transaction was “sufficiently complex” to prevent a deal being struck in time for the club to retake the field for their Premiership Rugby Cup fixture against Exeter Chiefs on October 19 and their Premiership game at Bristol three days later.
She said: “The PRL, I think, want clarity in the next couple of weeks and I think it’s a sufficiently complex transaction, plus the added complication of Players going into liquidation today. I think that makes it unlikely, I would say, at the moment.
“But, on the positive side, I think there’s a sense of a model then to be built with a bit more time to look at it and if we are planning on relegation to the Championship next season then that’s probably a much lower funding ask in the first instance.”
That may be true but would also mean there would be no competitive rugby at Sixways for almost a year, forcing players and staff to find new jobs.
Even were a takeover to be completed in time for Worcester to see out the season, Palmer expected the Rugby Football Union to relegate them anyway at the end of the campaign.
Palmer had lobbied the RFU not to impose the sanction designed to punish clubs that enter administration, asking them to invoke a no-fault clause covering insolvencies triggered by the coronavirus crisis.
“We put in our appeal, as we were required to, within 24 hours,” she said.
“The RFU’s response to that appears to be – but not fully confirmed – that we’re on very thin ground in terms of that appeal.”
Worcester’s expulsion from the Premiership will trigger a fresh row over what happens to their lucrative P share, worth £9million.
That share entitles them to a percentage of top-flight revenues, including television money, even if they are in the Championship but their rivals could now seek to strip them of it, with one senior Premiership club official describing the scenario as a "lawyer's dream ticket."
There is uncertainty surrounding the final destination of Worcester's P share. Work is currently taking place behind the scenes to determine whether a clause in the Premiership regulations would allow Worcester's P share to be redistributed to PRL for free because the club has fallen into administration. If this were deemed to be legally unviable, then Worcester's administrators would be in charge of the sale of the P share, with any funds accrued put towards the paying off of the club's debt.
Players and supporters began a social media campaign for Worcester to be allowed to keep the P share, using the slogan ‘Don’t take the P’.
Always a Wasp