We Need To Talk About London Irish

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Now served with a winding up petition by HMRC over unpaid tax believed to be in the region of £1m.

On the bright side at least it's not wasps £97m.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Yep.

London Irish served winding-up petition by HMRC

Cash-strapped Premiership club London Irish are served a winding-up petition by HM Revenue & Customs over an unpaid tax bill.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[will311293]

On the bright side at least it's not wasps £97m.

Hey... that was overall, i think HRMC was something like.... 1/9th of that ... haha

 

[will311293]

Good Luck Irish fans today, god forbid it goes wrong for them. To summarise, if they go nearly 25% of the league will have gone bust in 1 season.....

To further summarise, we have lost 3 clubs (Richmond, London Scottish and technically Welsh who were in Champ when went bust) since 1997 so 25 years until 2022 then 3 in one season...

 

[will311293]

Also saw this article...

The five clubs most affected by the grim Premiership outlook

London Irish could be the latest victims of the financial crisis gripping the Gallagher Premiership in England.

www.rugbypass.com

mentions Falcons, Tigers and Chiefs as shaky foundations.. i get they have issues and have restructured debt but always a concern. Didn't realise that this statement was sent to shareholders for Tigers "A letter from the club to shareholders sent in March stated that if the funding was not approved, there would be no option but to appoint administrators."

 

[Arcturus]

And there goes Irish, what a colossal cock-up

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Official confirmation:


Very sad - it's mad that three have gone in the same season. Just a coincidence? All three were for different reasons tbf - Crossnan might have seen what happened to the others and decided he didn't want to play rugby owner anymore

 

[TRF_Olyy]

F**king hell! That is a mental amount of money

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

I think the pandemic exposed bad businessmen and outright bad people. Warriors were owned by nefarious people while irish and wasps were two teams that had been relocated.

look at the amount of soccer teams that are having to be saved right now. I think either soccer has less stringent director's tests or more people willing to throw money at inevitable loss.

Even in America's pro owner set up we are seeing teams struggle. Two teams have been told no on new stadiums and are essentially homelesss for the next couple years.

 

[Saintjay]

How are some of the URC teams keeping heads above water? In one season the Prem has gone from the supposed best league to a joke. Certainly behind the French and some URC clubs. The England team is as mediocre as it has been in years. What with the ill managed roll out of the concussion protocols as well, rugby in England is looking a tad farcical.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

F**king hell! That is a mental amount of money

Isn't Ronaldo being paid more than that in a week in Saudi Arabia? But yes puts it in perspective: rugby v Football.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

F**king hell! That is a mental amount of money

Coleman is a good enough player but he really isn't worth even 1/4 of that to a Prem team.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

How are some of the URC teams keeping heads above water? In one season the Prem has gone from the supposed best league to a joke. Certainly behind the French and some URC clubs. The England team is as mediocre as it has been in years. What with the ill managed roll out of the concussion protocols as well, rugby in England is looking a tad farcical.

The welsh aren't, Scotland only fields two teams, Ireland only fields 3.5 and they barely have a professional women's setup. Ireland's economy is also doing pretty good.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Coleman is a good enough player but he really isn't worth even 1/4 of that to a Prem team.

Symptom of trying to play catch up with France and Japan pumping up wages,
They're propped up by billionaires/billion pound companies, we rely on generous millionaires


It's getting to the point where I'm thinking the best thing for the clubs would be to withdraw from Europe so the wage bills can come down, but then that will have a knock-on effect on sponsorship money and TV deals etc.etc.

Really don't know what the solution is, but the current course is blatantly not sustainable

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Symptom of trying to play catch up with France and Japan pumping up wages,
They're propped up by billionaires/billion pound companies, we rely on generous millionaires


It's getting to the point where I'm thinking the best thing for the clubs would be to withdraw from Europe so the wage bills can come down, but then that will have a knock-on effect on sponsorship money and TV deals etc.etc.

Really don't know what the solution is, but the current course is blatantly not sustainable

All sport in the uk has to compete with entities that don't care about profits. Cost of staff has probably gone up just cause man city and Newcastle can pay a social media person 400k a year if they'd like.

I love sport being professional but I wish it still had the amateur aura.

 

[Saintjay]

Clubs with unsustainable business models have gone out of business. To thrive, rugby clubs need to have a wide-ranging offering and varied revenue streams. All three clubs that have failed this season have had fragile business models for many years" - RFU chair Tom Ilube.

So the RFU just let it muddle along for years. Granted nobody saw a global pandemic coming but christ if they knew it was bad why not start taking clubs to task. Smacks of sitting back whilst the bloody band plays and the ship goes down

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Symptom of trying to play catch up with France and Japan pumping up wages,
They're propped up by billionaires/billion pound companies, we rely on generous millionaires


It's getting to the point where I'm thinking the best thing for the clubs would be to withdraw from Europe so the wage bills can come down, but then that will have a knock-on effect on sponsorship money and TV deals etc.etc.

Really don't know what the solution is, but the current course is blatantly not sustainable

Symptom of crap management.
Irish aren't competing with French clubs at that point, Irish signed him at that price after promotion in 2019
Irish signed
Dell - Scottish International
Phipps - Aus International
Rona - Aus International
O'Brien - Ireland International
Kepu - Aus International
Jackson - Ireland International
Naholo - All Black
Coleman - Aus International
Simmons - Aus International
Creevy - Argentine International
All within 12 months

You know what Irish could've prob kept Ruan Botha who played better rugby for Coleman IMO and is younger than Coleman on prob 700K less than him over what 4 seasons that's a saving of like nearly £3 million.

It's like Worcester why are clubs even signing those kind of players in these situations?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

[...snip...]

Yeah, that's fair

Considering how quickly Crossnan cut and ran (though I imagine COVID probably tanked his accounts a fair amount and changed his outlook) it's mad he spent so much so quickly

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Also saw this article...

The five clubs most affected by the grim Premiership outlook

London Irish could be the latest victims of the financial crisis gripping the Gallagher Premiership in England.

www.rugbypass.com

mentions Falcons, Tigers and Chiefs as shaky foundations.. i get they have issues and have restructured debt but always a concern. Didn't realise that this statement was sent to shareholders for Tigers "A letter from the club to shareholders sent in March stated that if the funding was not approved, there would be no option but to appoint administrators."

Ermm I had a chat with a Tigers shareholder on this, he reckoned it was largely Tom and Scott putting pressure on the other shareholders to quickly approve them buying the extra shares for £13 million.
The rugbypass aren't generally in the know with Clubs finances and more prone to click bait, compared to the Telegraph and Mail writers.

That being said would be naive to think Tigers or any club will weather this well

 

[stus768]

All sport in the uk has to compete with entities that don't care about profits. Cost of staff has probably gone up just cause man city and Newcastle can pay a social media person 400k a year if they'd like.

I love sport being professional but I wish it still had the amateur aura.

Surely there are enough people who love sports so would be willing to get paid less to be involved to still keep the costs down. And plenty still get paid peanuts even at prem football clubs because of it.