1
Players told at lunchtime that Wasps have gone into administration
By Liam Heagney
Cash-strapped Wasps will fall into administration in the coming days after their attempt to play for time to seek out fresh investment didn’t come to fruition quickly enough. RugbyPass understands that players and staff were informed of this latest development at a lunchtime meeting at the club’s training ground in Henley-in-Arden.
There had been grave fears about the future of Wasps after it emerged on September 21 that the club had notified the High Court of its intention to appoint an administrator. This was viewed as a play for additional time in order to see if they could secure a takeover bid.
A second notification to appoint an administrator was filed on October 4 and players and staff were addressed at the training ground the following day by CEO Stephen Vaughan and COO Chris Holland.
Director of rugby Lee Blackett said shortly after that visit: “We were updated today personally by Stephen Vaughan and Chris Holland who were both down and they both gave us where we were. They explained about filing that second notice of intention to appoint administrators. They talked about interested parties, they were very honest with the group. Positive at the same time as well as being honest.
“At the moment everything they have said to us has always been the 100 per cent truth. They have got the full backing of everyone here. They have given us nothing to say they are not being completely honest. We are completely behind them. There is a feeling here we are all in this together. It is not an us and them.”
Wasps proceeded to play last Sunday’s match versus Northampton as planned but they continued to be dogged this week by worrying speculation about the state of their finances and concerns that this Saturday's match at Exeter might not go ahead. That match has now been postponed and a scheduled media conference with coach Blackett was also cancelled.
Wasps currently face a winding up order from HM Revenue and Customs for £2million in unpaid tax next week and are also struggling to repay the £35m bond that was raised to help finance their relocation from High Wycombe to Coventry in 2014 that was due in May 2022.
The penalty for a Premiership club falling into administration is relegation to the Championship, a fate that happened just last week to Worcester. The RFU, though, decided later on Wednesday only to suspend Wasps from participating in the Premiership until further notice.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Israel Folau to make rugby return despite mid-week Lions disappointmen
3
Gregor Townsend: It’s the first time since 2000 that we’ve been to NZ
4
England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie's club future appears done
5
Latest Comments
Yes that’s what WR needs to look at. Football had the same problem with european powerhouses getting all the latin talent then you’re gaurenteed to get the odd late bloomer (21/22 etc, all the best footballers can play for the country much younger to get locked) star changing his allegiance.
They used youth rep selection for locking national elifibilty at one point etc. Then later only counted residency after the age of 18 (make clubs/nations like in this case wait even longer).
That’s what I’m talking about, not changing allegiance in rugby (were it can only be captured by the senior side), where it is still the senior side. Oh yeah, good point about CJ, so in most cases we probably want kids to be able to switch allegiance, were say someone like Lemoto could rep Tonga (if he wasn’t so good) but still play for Australia’s seniors, while in someone like Kite’s (the last aussie kid to go to France) case he’ll be French qualified via 5 years residency at the age of 21, so France to lock him up before Aussie even get a chance to select him. But if we use footballs regulations, who I’m suggesting WR need to get their a into g replicating, he would only start his 5 years once he turns 18 or whatever, meaning 23 yo is as soon as anyone can switch, and when if they’re good enough teams like NZ and Aus can select them (France don’t give a f, they select anybody just to lock them).
Go to commentsThe only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
Go to comments