Brad Shields: Wasps still owe me ?100,000 but it's wrong to not allow them into Championship
Exclusive: Wasps were demoted to the bottom of the rugby pyramid after the RFU withdrew the club's license to compete in the Championship
By
Charlie Morgan,
SENIOR RUGBY WRITER
22 May 2023 ? 9:22pm
Brad Shields - Wasps still owe me ?100,000 but it's wrong to not allow them into Championship
Brad Shields, the ex-England international, has revealed that he is owed over ?100,000 following the demise of Wasps and has criticised the Rugby Football Union?s decision to bar the club from re-entering the Championship.
According to a statement from the club last week, Wasps applied to the union twice for deadline extensions in order to secure funding that would allow them to pay creditors.
Meeting that commitment would have allowed Wasps to re-enter the Championship rather than sink to the bottom of the league pyramid. Unless they are granted the remarkable reprieve of a franchise place in the second tier, the only way of keeping the club alive would appear to be restarting at a far lower level.
Shields, a former club captain who joined Perpignan in France when Wasps fell into administration seven months ago, was adamant that the new administration, led by Chris Holland, should not be blamed for his predicament.
Indeed, he stressed that Holland had done his utmost to fulfil the ?moral obligation? to pay rugby creditors. Having been left out of pocket and confused by a process that has seemed ?tough and strange?, Shields spelled out the human cost of Wasps? fall and the unpaid image rights that he now feels unlikely to receive.
?I don?t want to go into specifics but it?s not shy of six figures,? said the 32-year-old, who has secured a return to New Zealand with the Hurricanes for next season.
?That is a damning position to be in after you feel you?ve put so much into a club. I know for a fact that Chris, Robert Dawbarn and the two Wasps Legends did everything they possibly could to keep Wasps alive and spoke about the moral obligation to rugby creditors as part of that. It?s just sad that it?s come to a screeching halt.
?What distracts you as a rugby player is playing rugby. I?ve been lucky enough to have something. If I hadn?t, the stress would have been ten-fold.
?Hindsight is obviously a b---- but I put money into my own business,? Shields added of Social, the line of hard-seltzer drinks he developed in harness with Josh Bassett, his former Wasps colleague.
?Would I have done that if this money wasn?t coming through? Moving out to France has been stressful in itself and obviously isn?t cheap. As a family, we?ve now got to take a breath and decide whether we want to move on or keep tormenting ourselves over it.?
Last week?s statement from Wasps conceded that the rugby creditors' situation had been ?troublesome? given the tangled list of claims left to a small team by the previous administration. It was indicated that these claims, including that of Shields, will now revert back to administrators to pursue against Wasps Holdings Limited. Shields is yet to be informed about any next steps regarding what he is owed.
Wasps also suggested that potential investors in the club had grown ?fatigued? due to a lack of clarity over future league structure in English rugby union. Citing the ongoing uncertainty at London Irish, Shields agreed with this view.
?It was always going to be difficult for that investment without a direction moving forward for the Premiership,? he said.
?If the Premiership is ring fenced, what is the ambition for Championship teams? Even if there is a promotion play-off, that game could be between two teams with massively different budgets.
?Another issue it raises for me is that if Wasps are struggling to make that criteria, are they asking it of other Premiership teams? Are the RFU asking every club whether they are sustainable and able to pay their players? By the looks of London Irish, there are question marks there as well.?
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