Wounded Warriors won’t be replaced
THE 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership regular season is likely to remain a 26round season – even if Worcester are thrown out.
The Warriors’ very future remains balanced on a knife-edge due to an unpaid HMRC bill and Premiership bosses have been in talks about contingency plans if they are unable to take their place in the 13team competition.
A well-placed source has told The Rugby Paper that every team bar Saracens was happy to revert back to a 22-week season if the league is reduced to 12 teams.
But apparently Saracens objected on rugby grounds because they have a bye in the opening round of fixtures and had planned their pre-season around not playing that weekend.
The Premiership season begins with the West Country derby between Bristol and Bath, live on BT Sport, on Friday September 9.
Worcester are scheduled to play London Irish away the next day but Declan Kidney’s team will also get a bye if the worst case scenario pans out because Premiership Rugby are reluctant to redraw the fixture list at such short notice.
Two teams will get a bye on every weekend that Worcester were due to play. As things stand, the Warriors’ bye weeks are in Round 6 (October 14-16) and Round 23 (March 2426).
Earlier this month, HMRC hit the Premiership club with a winding-up petition over unpaid tax, believed to be in excess of £6m.
Owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham have come in for fierce criticism but told staff they are “doing everything possible to save this club and your livelihoods”.
“If a buyer offered to fund and continue the club only if we sold the whole site then we would,” they added jointly. “Timing is tight and we are running multiple solutions to this situation simultaneously to resolve it as fast as possible.
“We can’t guarantee the outcome yet, but we can guarantee we will have done everything possible to save this club and your livelihoods.”
At least one potential buyer, the consortium assembled by Jim O’Toole, the former Worcester CEO, is working hard towards concluding a deal with Goldring and Whittingham.
Irishman O’Toole, who still lives in the city, says he has had serious interest from an American investor, which would also involve local businesses.
O’Toole first joined Worcester in 2015, having previously worked at London Irish, before departing in 2017.
Since then he has worked as a sports consultant, based in the UK, but working with some companies abroad.
“I just don’t want this city without a professional rugby club,” said O’Toole.
“I still have a big emotional attachment to Worcester, and I just want to be able to help in some small way. It’s about saving the club, but in a sustainable fashion.
“Over the last week I have been contacted by an American business that I was doing some work within a different sports marketing field.
“They have asked me to put together a consortium of local businesspeople who would come in with me to acquire the club and create a long-term and sustainable business. A mix of some international money and local people who have the best interests of the club at heart.”
While non-playing staff remain off work, the players continue to train but that may no longer be the case if the August payroll is not met next week.