London Irish became the third club in eight months to be removed from the Premiership for financial reasons as the RFU suspended them from all their leagues on Tuesday.
It means that clubs accounting for just shy of a quarter of the league’s previous total number of 13 teams have been removed since the start of the season.
Irish had been hopeful that owner Mick Crossan would complete a deal with an American consortium that would help to pay the remaining 50 per cent of staff wages that were outstanding for May, but with neither the deal completed nor wages paid the RFU have taken the same decision as they took for Wasps and Worcester in October last year.
An RFU statement read: “The decision was taken after six months of talks to take over the club failed to materialise and to provide certainty to staff and players, thereby allowing them to seek alternative employment.
“The move also provides clarity to other clubs in the league and prevents a situation where the club goes into administration part way through a season.”
It is another hammer blow to the Premiership and English Rugby, who have now lost three clubs that previously had 433 years of history in the game between them.
Worcester were the first club to be removed on 6th October, after entering administration as a result of tax dispute on the 26th September, followed by Wasps on the 28th October, having entered administration 11 days earlier with over £100 million in outstanding debts.
Though Irish have not yet entered administration, news of a winding up petition over an unpaid tax bill on Saturday suggested that their lingering hope of their survival in the league was fading, and with the RFU’s deadline to pay staff not met they will have to restart at the bottom of the English pyramid.
Like Wasps, the club name will stay alive through their amateur club at a higher tier, with Wasps FC currently in Counties 1 Herts/Middlesex (tier seven) and London Irish Amateur RFC (also known as the “Wild Geese”) in Regional 2 Thames (tier six).
But with not one of the three clubs that had folded in the Premiership era before this season ever returning to the top tier, the hopes of seeing either of the two clubs back at the top level are slim.
RFU CEO Bill Sweeney said: “Despite requesting evidence over the last six months and receiving assurances on multiple occasions that we would receive proof of ownership and funds; it has not materialised.
“In the event that it would ultimately not be possible to save London Irish, our second priority has always been to avoid the club entering an unplanned insolvency mid-season.
“In the absence of transparent proof of reliable long-term funding, and for the duty of care for all involved at the club, the sad decision has now been taken to suspend the club from RFU leagues.”
RFU chair Tom Ilube blamed the clubs’ individual business models for their failures over the last year, while the RFU has not initially accepted any responsibility in its extensive analysis of the situation.
Ilube added: “All three clubs that have failed this season have had fragile business models for many years. The structure and ownership of a stadium is a factor alongside reliance on a single funder, challenging societal trends, financial mismanagement, and an insufficiently large fan base.
“Not all three clubs had all these issues, but they faced a combination of these factors over many years before Covid and the current economic downturn.
“It is the specific job of the RFU, as the national governing body for rugby union in England, to reinvest revenues in the overall growth of the game both at a community and professional level; we currently contribute £25 million to the Premiership each year but cannot continue to invest in failing business models. That means tough investment decisions.
“There is a thriving community club at London Irish Amateur RFC and we will help to facilitate discussions that support the London Irish name to live on in England.”
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