Worcester owners hit out at players as crisis worsens

• Worcester owners hit out at players and fans after the club was placed into administration.
• Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham blame the unanticipated coronavirus pandemic for the club’s plight.
• The club owes more than £25 million ($27.9 million), including at least £6 million in unpaid tax.

As the situation surrounding English Premiership rugby union club Worcester escalated on Friday, the club’s owners lashed out at players and fans.

Worcester has been placed into administration after the Rugby Football Union suspended them from all tournaments on Monday.

The Warriors owe more than £25 million ($27.9 million), including at least £6 million in unpaid tax. There is mounting resentment towards the club’s owners, Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham, who are accused of asset-stripping.

But Goldring and Whittingham, in response to a televised appearance in which Worcester captain Ted Hill demanded an apology “from not only the owners but also from other people high up from the company as well,” stated that they were not to fault for the Warriors’ predicament.

In a message to the “staff, supporters, and community of Worcester Warriors,” the owners said they were sorry the club was in its current position and for the “emotional distress this must have caused” but remained hopeful the administrators would find a new owner.

While Goldring and Whittingham were appreciative of the fans who “came out week after week,” they were “sad that there were neither more nor enough of you consistently to assist make the club financially sustainable, despite the enormous personal sums we put into the club.”

Worcester’s financial demise was attributed by its owners to the unanticipated coronavirus pandemic’s effects.

And while they applauded the staff members who took a wage cut to keep the club viable, they expressed regret that “the playing squad could not accept a similar level of reduction,” or in some cases, any reduction.

Worcester players may be released from their contracts when a winding-up order brought by British tax officials is heard in court on Wednesday.

According to reports, two consortiums, including former Worcester chief executive Jim O’Toole, have indicated an interest in purchasing the club out of administration.

Worcester is not the only one of the 13 Premiership clubs at risk of financial failure.

Wasps, twice European champions, declared their intention to seek administrators this week after failing to reach a May deadline to repay £35 million in loans that helped finance their 2014 relocation from London to Coventry.

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