Jersey Reds set to enter administration as English rugby’s financial crisis grows
English rugby’s financial crisis deepened on Thursday with Jersey Reds announcing they are set to enter administration.
The club won the Championship last season and were due to play Cornish Pirates in the Premiership Rugby Cup on Friday, but said they have been forced to cease trading with no prospect of resuming unless fresh investment is urgently found.
A club statement read: “Jersey Reds regret to confirm that the club ceased trading at 5.30pm on Wednesday September 27th and is exploring the way forward. However, liquidation appears inevitable unless a solution can be found in the very short term.”
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The club acknowledged it would be unable to pay wages for September that were due this week and would not be travelling to fulfil Friday night’s fixture.
In the statement, the club highlight the uncertainty about the future of English rugby’s second tier as one of the difficulties in securing funding. The Jersey Reds chairman, Mark Morgan, said: “We had been able to start the season and maintain sufficient funds to cover the summer, but regret that our conversations with potential new investors as well as existing ones have been unsuccessful.
“At one stage at the end of last season it appeared there was a viable way forward for the second tier once the new Professional Game Agreement was implemented from summer 2024, but Championship clubs have been left in the dark since that point and this led to a growing fatigue among those who may have invested, but could not be given any concrete assurance about when the new structure would come in, or how it would be funded.”
The collapse of the second-tier champions is just the latest heavy blow in a disastrous time for domestic rugby. In the Premiership, Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish all ceased trading in the past year, leaving a reduced 10-team top flight that is scheduled to begin on 13 October.
The news will further increase scrutiny on the Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, and the chairman, Tom Ilube. In a letter signed by 30 RFU council members sent on the eve of England’s opening Rugby World Cup match against Argentina, they were accused of inadequate leadership by almost half of the organisation’s council members.
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Early in 2020 the RFU slashed funding for Championship clubs by 50%, while relegation from the top flight is currently suspended, making life all the more difficult for clubs in the second tier.
The RFU has been contacted for comment.