Covid 19

[Renegade]

I'm seriously worried for the game, clubs may survive as lots of the old guard will turn out on weekends and keep socialising as per but it's the players and participation.

Like Rinky says some older guys might just say, thats it and a lot of the kid may find other stuff to do after 18 months+ away from the game.

The RFU are on their uppers due to poor management so they can't save the game, very worrying!!

[Pied Piper of Hameln]

There has been some hints from the government today that they are looking to see what help sports clubs are going to need to survive. Personally would be suprised if there wasnt some kind of financial assistance from the government. If this will be enough to save every rugby club who knows as no doubt some will have been badly run. This includes Premiership clubs and community clubs who will have over extended themselves but hopefully the vast majority survive.

[Pied Piper of Hameln]

Just a little bit of hope not a very nice night but just had a very enjoyable training session with our Colts good numbers 21 there tonight and had a bit crack with them asked them how they where and how they were coping with the thought of no rugby for the forceable future. All of them absolutely gutted about it but what cheered me up no end was how much they look forward to training every Wednesday because of how little else they have going on in there lives at the moment which lifted my spirits somewhat with all the bad news that's flying about. Thought I would share this might lift a few others spirits.

[TheGuv]

Really good to read!

Just remember nearly all of our clubs have gone through Two World Wars and come through the other end. I’m sure we can do it again!

[TheGuv]

Quite an interesting (but depressing) read from the Guardian. I’m pretty confident all of our amateur clubs should be fine but I wouldn’t be surprised if some Championship and National League clubs fall by the wayside.

From top to bottom, rugby union is now staring into the abyss
From the best-run Premiership club to the grassroots, all parts of the game are in peril but not all its ills can be pinned on Covid

There is nothing quite like a pandemic for exposing hard, uncomfortable truths. And, give or take stand-up comedians, nightclub owners and first year university students, few face a bleaker midwinter than sports that live or die by people entering their stadiums each weekend. The word “catastrophe” usually jars in the context of mere athletic pursuits but increasingly, in rugby, there is no ducking it.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the depth of the abyss into which much of the game – professional and amateur – in Britain and Ireland is now staring. At every level it relies, in sickness or in health, on the top of the pyramid delivering for the benefit of all. So when the Rugby Football Union, until recently the wealthiest union in the world, says a government bailout is needed to prop up the whole edifice a chill shiver should run down the spine of everyone with an oval-shaped heart.


Sport left to sweat on rescue from a half-listening government
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Imagine for a moment that, in addition to the many millions of pounds already lost, the 2021 Six Nations has to be played behind closed doors or cancelled altogether. In some ways the immediate pain it would cause within the elite game is the least of it. Bill Sweeney, the RFU’s chief executive, says there will be a £138m reduction in revenue if no spectators are allowed back into Twickenham before next summer, with the English community game braced for an estimated £86m revenue hit.

To transfer those numbers off a spreadsheet and drop them into real life is to risk a sizeable panic attack. Maybe a few Premiership clubs would be able to soldier on, courtesy of their sugar daddy owners, but a good number are already tottering. The Championship, supposedly the second tier of the English game, already looks doomed, with funding potentially set to be cut from £640,000 per club to £40,000 next season. Below them, dozens of impoverished local clubs with no income will struggle to survive, endangering the long-term supply chain from grassroots to national teams. The fledgling women’s professional set-up, sevens, age-group representative rugby, academies, referees … any number of talented and enthusiastic people have had the rug pulled from under them – or soon will.

The Irish Rugby Football Union’s chief executive, Philip Browne, has already given a stark assessment to an Irish parliamentary committee, suggesting the “very existence of professional rugby” in his country is under threat if fans cannot return in sufficiently large numbers. He revealed the IRFU’s cash surplus of €28m in June was likely to be transformed into a debt of around €10m by next summer and had no hesitation in using the “c” word. “Irish rugby’s net losses in 2020 are catastrophic,” he said. “The rugby infrastructure built over 150 years is under threat.”

Ireland v Wales
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 A packed Aviva Stadium watches Ireland take on Wales earlier this year. The IRFU says its net losses this year are ‘catastrophic’. Photograph: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images
Few in Wales and Scotland would argue differently and even the best-run professional club in England are feeling the intensifying heat. Exeter are essentially a conference and banqueting business with a rugby club attached and are currently losing at least £1m per month. Rob Baxter, their director of rugby, has spent enough time in board meetings to be genuinely alarmed. “It doesn’t take a genius to have concerns. I am a club director so I see the financial predictions, the expectations of what we need crowd-wise, what we need to be taking over the bar etc.

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“There is a reality that this cannot go on, if we genuinely as a country want sport and sporting venues to be able to continue and provide what they do for their communities. Sport is a huge part of this country’s culture that we can’t just let slip by without taking some action about it. Let’s hope there is a genuine concern taken by the government in how they aim to help us and how they also aim to get crowds back in as soon as they possibly can.”

Then again, should government bailouts be casually handed to organisations that have previously been awash with money and seemingly put little aside for a rainy day? Should certain administrators have allowed their dominoes to remain so tightly stacked or been so heavily reliant on a golden goose that has now ceased laying? In France this week the vice-chairman of World Rugby, Bernard Laporte, has been questioned by prosecutors investigating possible corruption. In Australia, Qantas has just withdrawn as main sponsor after 30 years, delivering another heavy financial blow to the sport down under. Rugby is in serious strife and not all its woes can be blamed on Covid-19.

[Pied Piper of Hameln]

Yes depressing news Guv. This might be harsh but some clubs will go to the wall through no fault but there own and will of been losing huge amounts of cash way before Covid hit. There are too many clubs in the Premiership there should be 10 maximum. Automatic promotion should be stopped a club should only be promoted when finishing top of there league if they are breaking even and have a business plan that shows they can survive financially at the next level. The Championship and National leagues are absolute basket cases with some clubs having more outrageous dreams than Walter Mitty. They should be feeder clubs for further up the pyramid developing there own English qualified players and getting financially rewarded for any players that go through there club to bigger and better things either from the RFU or Premiership. It really annoys me when I see clubs even down to level 7 shipping in players from Australia New Zealand and South Africa it's absolute madness. On the whole there are to many players getting paid in this country and it's got to stop for the good of the game.

[Badgerbear77]

I couldnt agree more Piper... the sums I hear on the grapevine are crazy and its utterly unsustainable

[Renegade]

As an administrator of a club until recently I can tell you that most clubs are ran on the "Exeter" model, hospitality businesses first and rugby clubs 2nd.

Gone are the days when the rugby sustained clubs financially, some clubs get a really good support from players but most don't nowadays. With the hospitality industry now at real risk most well ran clubs will struggle to sustain the level of facilities that they do now, whatever savings they had will disappear quickly now they are all back on full outgoings.

Factor in the lost "capital" injection that they received annually from incoming memberships, sponsorship and new season money this will be disastrous to most. If you go around most clubs at L6, 7, 8 and some at 9 they all have decent clubhouses with changing and showering that all costs. Factor in people's wages etc then your looking at some clubs running at aroung £5-10k per month costs and with income at much less than that then it's a disaster.

I hope something can be done, I'm lucky as a referee I get to visit some of the best and friendliest clubs in the north and I hope not one goes under.

Plus I'm missing the opportunity to see all the smiling faces in the crowd every week (not).

[Camp Freddie]

My worry is that even at Levels 6 and below many clubs will be Ltd companies with registered directors.

Even though these administrators may be unpaid volunteers they could be resposible for a company that goes bust. In some cases it could also be that being a member gives you some financial responsibility if the club folds and has creditors.

If that happens I imagine that the semi pro players who the club shipped in and have no allegiance to the club won't be seen for dust.

Worrying times.

[TheGuv]

Only liable to pay £1 aren’t they?

And should be fine unless it’s criminal negligence. Not sure they can be blamed for a pandemic.

Regardless though it is worrying. I don’t know how many clubs will last another year of no regular income.

[No1No2]

RFU now asking clubs how much they have in there coffers , they be asking the richer clubs for a sub

[davebarnes]

RFU now asking clubs how much they have in there coffers , they be asking the richer clubs for a sub

More likely to be asking the lower clubs to chip in to pay the top superstars. That's their main concern as proven by sacking all their staff.