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Scottish rugby crippled by debts
The future of Scotland's three professional rugby teams is once again in doubt as the Scottish Rugby Union's debt has risen to £23m.
The SRU will review the status of Glasgow, Borders and Edinburgh if external funding cannot be found before the start of next season.
The national under-19, 21 and Sevens squads are to be scrapped.
But involvement at a new U-20s level will be examined and Sevens teams can be selected from the National Academy.
The SRU says it is open-minded about which professional teams any joint ventures would involve and where the teams would be located.
But chief executive Gordon McKie warned: "If suitable terms cannot be agreed and opportunities don't materialise, we will sadly have no alternative but to further reduce our investment in pro-team rugby.
"Scottish Rugby has lost over £20m in nine of the last eleven years, so it's no surprise that our budget priorities now dictate this long overdue action.
"The changes to our representative teams are much needed. Historically there has been a serious lack of proper preparation and intensity of competition, which resulted in a consistent inability to compete meaningfully at underage rugby.
"Going forward we will introduce properly structured player development programmes, which will allow more of these young players the opportunity to make the grade within high performance rugby.
"We've been over ambitious in all that we have taken on at the elite end of the sport. This is a business after all and we can only do what we can afford to do."
Scotland will participate at the Under-21 World Championship in France in June.
And Scotland's Under-18 team will continue but the Under-18 A team will no longer exist.
There is also doubt over Melrose staging one of the final legs of the world Sevens circuit. The SRU will discuss the commercial viability of this next week.
Source BBC Sport
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My Comment
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It seems another Home Nation has hit a crisis point this year, but this time with money... Its a shame really as the Scots had a good run in this years Six Nations, although some of the changes may be beneficial to the youth development of scottish Rugby... the main priority I feel for the scottish Celtic league teams, is too look into other possible ways of saving money, so that they are able to support themselves a bit better... This is a situation that will have to be monitored closer, but hopefully they will find external investment...
The future of Scotland's three professional rugby teams is once again in doubt as the Scottish Rugby Union's debt has risen to £23m.
The SRU will review the status of Glasgow, Borders and Edinburgh if external funding cannot be found before the start of next season.
The national under-19, 21 and Sevens squads are to be scrapped.
But involvement at a new U-20s level will be examined and Sevens teams can be selected from the National Academy.
The SRU says it is open-minded about which professional teams any joint ventures would involve and where the teams would be located.
But chief executive Gordon McKie warned: "If suitable terms cannot be agreed and opportunities don't materialise, we will sadly have no alternative but to further reduce our investment in pro-team rugby.
"Scottish Rugby has lost over £20m in nine of the last eleven years, so it's no surprise that our budget priorities now dictate this long overdue action.
"The changes to our representative teams are much needed. Historically there has been a serious lack of proper preparation and intensity of competition, which resulted in a consistent inability to compete meaningfully at underage rugby.
"Going forward we will introduce properly structured player development programmes, which will allow more of these young players the opportunity to make the grade within high performance rugby.
"We've been over ambitious in all that we have taken on at the elite end of the sport. This is a business after all and we can only do what we can afford to do."
Scotland will participate at the Under-21 World Championship in France in June.
And Scotland's Under-18 team will continue but the Under-18 A team will no longer exist.
There is also doubt over Melrose staging one of the final legs of the world Sevens circuit. The SRU will discuss the commercial viability of this next week.
Source BBC Sport
_____________________________________________________________________
My Comment
_____________________________________________________________________
It seems another Home Nation has hit a crisis point this year, but this time with money... Its a shame really as the Scots had a good run in this years Six Nations, although some of the changes may be beneficial to the youth development of scottish Rugby... the main priority I feel for the scottish Celtic league teams, is too look into other possible ways of saving money, so that they are able to support themselves a bit better... This is a situation that will have to be monitored closer, but hopefully they will find external investment...