Worcester’s demise should finally force the sport to focus on its sustainability, its fragility and its future
Warriors Director of Rugby Steve Diamond called this 'the darkest day for English rugby'
©PA
In episode six of 'Welcome to Wrexham', the emotional and uplifting documentary of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s purchase of Wrexham Football Club, the show focuses on the pairs’ desire for the club to once again own The Racecourse Ground.
Julie Birrell, one of the Wrexham supporters who frequently appears over the season, struggled to hold back tears as she remembered when her beloved club was being ripped apart to satisfy the pockets of former owners Alex Hamilton and Mark Guterman.
The pair took over the club in March 2002, with the sole intention of fattening their wallets from the land on which the Racecourse Ground stands. Guterman had been at the helm of Chester when they went into administration in 1999.
The historic Racecourse Ground was bought from then-owners Marston’s Brewery for £300,000. Immediately, ownership was transferred to Crucialmove, Hamilton’s company. Hamilton then paid another £300,000 via Guterman in 2003, cancelling the club’s 125-year lease agreement at the stadium and giving Wrexham 12 months to find a new ground to play in.
The process bears a striking resemblance to how Worcester Warriors owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham have acted with the rugby union club. One can only hope that the desecration of Worcester caused by the pair has the same effect as the shady dealings of Hamilton and Guterman had on the Football League.
It feels wrong to say there were any upsides to Wrexham’s former owners’ behaviour, but it was an influential case that eventually led to the Football League installing a "fit and proper person test."
World Rugby or the RFU, has no such equivalent. World Rugby originally announced plans to introduce one, but as far as one can tell, it was never implemented. Had there been one in place in 2018 when Worcester's owners took control of the club, perhaps the Warriors would not be staring oblivion in the face.
The Guardian reported that Goldring had been barred by the Solicitors Regulation Authority from working for any law firm without clearance. It emerged that as a “trainee solicitor” between June 2016 and April 2017, Goldring “caused or allowed” the disappearance of €8.3m of a Saudi Arabian client’s money. Had an official ownership test been in place to examine the transfer of directorship from Jed McCrory to Goldring and Whittingham, surely a panel would have raised questions over Goldring’s barring, and if such a character was fit to run a rugby club.
Alas, no ownership test allowed the pair to waltz into the club without question. Since then, they’ve led Worcester to the brink of destruction. They’ve lawfully carved the club, creating a network of companies in the process, and transferring assets away from the club itself, splitting the Sixways land into separate businesses. Whilst they did this, the Warriors continued to be saddled with a level of unsustainable debt, amounting to more than £25million according to PA Media.
In August, the first dialogue between Worcester and HMRC emerged. It began a timeline of toothless statements paradoxically parallel to a lack of communication from the Warriors directors. Whilst they did little, Twitter’s rugby community was flooded daily with messages of support and solidarity.
The collective mood swung from negativity to positivity and back and forth as the owners assured supporters that new buyers were close to sealing the deal. Deadlines came and went, and no deals were confirmed. Last Monday, the club were put into administration.
With all that has gone on, there might be some light at the end of a dark tunnel for Worcester after administrators announced that Goldring and Whittingham have been replaced as directors of MQ Property Co Ltd by Stuart Maddison.
Bergbies Traynor (Central) LLP have also been appointed as joint administrators over WRFC Trading Ltd - the company that employed the players - but crucially they are receivers over Sixways Stadium and 'receivers over the shares together with any other fixed security assets of Worcester Sports Limited' meaning the club have their land back.
So while everyone connected with Worcester waits to see if any interested parties want to take over the operation of the club, the game needs to learn from this sobering episode.
The patrons of rugby union, from executives to pundits to players, have long held the attitude of ‘if you build it, they will come.’ A belief that all rugby needs to succeed and ‘grow the game’ - as everyone likes to say - is for rugby the product to be enjoyable, that it must change and reinvent itself...the problem is on the pitch, not off it.
Perhaps, it is now the other way around. The Gallagher Premiership, this season at least, has been wildly unpredictable and exciting. Every sport also has its boring moments, instances of timewasting or unwelcome aspects, but that’s sport. It is imperfect, tumultuous, and emotional.
Rugby has and always will be the most uniquely imperfect of all and whilst it’s been subject to constant tinkering year after year, its foundations, or lack of them, have grown ever more fragile.
Unions and governing bodies have sat idly by as rugby and its clubs have spiralled ever further downwards. Mismanagement has pervaded rugby union since its professionalisation. The writing on the wall of rugby union’s financial insecurities have been drip-fed year by year until Covid-19 greatly exacerbated the suffering of a sport that desperately needs reshaping.
Just five months ago, Worcester Warriors had lifted the Premiership Cup, their first major trophy and a sign of their potential upside. A bright future perhaps in the making with the likes of Duhan van der Merwe, Fin Smith, and Ted Hill, but now the club will likely cease to exist.
Worcester’s sad demise shouldn’t be a kick in the teeth, it should be a full body beatdown and something that should finally force the sport to focus on its sustainability, its fragility, and its future.
