English Championship winners Jersey Reds to enter administration
Jersey Reds were the winners of second division English Championship competition in the previous season
©PA
English Championship club Jersey Reds have confirmed on Thursday that they will be entering into administration.
Having clinched the Championship title last season, the club had been eagerly anticipating their upcoming match against the Cornish Pirates in the Premiership Rugby Cup this Friday. However, the grim reality is that the club has been compelled to halt its operations. A resumption seems bleak unless a new infusion of investment materializes in the very near future.
They now follow the likes of Premiership sides Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish, who entered into administration in the last one year as English rugby’s financial crisis continue to deepen.
The club revealed that they are unable to pay the salaries for September this week and has been facing constant challenges since the funding cuts enforced during the pandemic Covid-19 crisis.
These financial woes have plunged the club into an even more precarious situation than the one they faced back in November 2016. At that time, mounting cumulative losses had forced the club to seek a lifeline of £1.5 million through a sale-and-leaseback agreement that encompassed the club's assets.
"We had been able to start the season and maintain sufficient funds to cover the summer, but regret that our conversations with potential new investors as well as existing ones have been unsuccessful," club chairman Mark Morgan said.
"At one stage at the end of last season it appeared there was a viable way forward for the second tier once the new Professional Game Agreement was implemented from summer 2024.
"But Championship clubs have been left in the dark since that point and this led to a growing fatigue among those who may have invested, but could not be given any concrete assurance about when the new structure would come in, or how it would be funded."
