Welsh regions face a major cash crisis
WELSH regional rugby is facing a huge fight in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic with reports claiming their funding from the Welsh Rugby Union is set to be drastically slashed in the next year.
A report in The Times says the four regions could receive just £500,000 for the new season. To put it in perspective, the Scarlets currently pocket around £8.5 million, the Blues and Ospreys £6.5 million and the Dragons £5.5 million.
The report claims this will almost certainly lead to redundancies and wage cuts for the top players after the Professional Rugby Board held a four-hour meeting last week to discuss the financial implications following the shutdown of rugby.
The paper says it could see the top earners in the Welsh squad potentially losing £100,000 from their pay packets, with the WRU reportedly facing a £60 million downturn in their annual income.
With the £11.8 million funding of the community game ring-fenced, it is claimed the union will have to make huge cutbacks in their cash allocations to the regions.
The article goes on to say World Rugby and the Welsh Government could be a route for financial assistance.
However, the CVC cash injection to the PRO14 game to the tune of £116 million is a phased payment and won’t provide a short-term solution. No rugby has been played in Wales since early March. And while it is hoped Wales will play their remaining Six Nations game with Scotland in October, followed by the autumn internationals, there remains the threat of a second wave of the virus striking later this year.