London Irish players in talks with other clubs as takeover fears grow

London Irish players are understood to be in talks with other clubs, mainly in France, amid mounting fears there is little hope of a takeover by a United States consortium going through in time to save them.

Irish, who have debts of more than £30million, have been set a deadline of May 30 by the Rugby Football Union to prove that they have completed an approved takeover, or provide evidence that they have the funds to complete next season. If they cannot meet that deadline, they will be suspended from the Premiership, becoming the third club lost to the competition this season.

Telegraph Sport disclosed last Monday that the man behind the US consortium attempting to buy the club is Alfred “Chip” Sloan, a former sports agent and Californiabased lawyer who expressed an interest in investing in Saracens two years ago. Sloan heads up a private equity fund called Nue Equity, which is being rebranded as True Equity, that is attempting to buy the club from owner Mick Crossan.

However, the RFU and Premiership Rugby have yet to receive any proof of funds and other details required for the fit-and-properperson test and due diligence and there is little confidence among senior figures that the club will be saved from going under – the fate suffered by Wasps and Worcester this season.

Players cannot leave the club until it has been proved that the club are in breach of contract, however it is thought that some may have already signed “pre-contracts” with new clubs that will come into effect if Irish go to the wall. “Everyone is chatting to other clubs,” a source close to the players said. “France is the most likely destination because with play-off games all in the next few weeks, the clubs that are going up and down will be known and then they will be finalising squads.”

Premiership Rugby was already planning to reduce the league to 10 clubs for the start of the 2024-25 season (from 13 at the start of this campaign) and are drawing up plans to fast-track that for the start of next season if the deal with Sloan does not go through.

A source close to the consortium said there was still a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes and it was always likely to take until the end of this month to complete.

The only other possible salvation for London Irish is if the Irish Rugby Football Union, which has stated its desire to create more playing opportunities for the bottleneck of talent within the Irish academy system, steps in to take control of the club. That scenario, however, would require approval by the RFU, and would bring a host of complex issues to resolve, including England’s elite player squad agreement and English-qualified player payments.

Crossan was forced to pay the club’s salaries for April to prevent the players from serving the club with breach-of-contract letters after they were not paid for six days. Now, with just six business days left for a deal to be approved, it seems it is going to go right to the wire.