With London Irish’s formal expulsion from the Premiership, the diminishing map of English professional club rugby has lost another familiar name. The Exiles are the third Premiership club to dissolve financially in the past nine months, reducing the league to ten teams and rendering approximately 100 players and personnel unemployed.
As expected, the proposed US consortium failed to complete their proposed acquisition of the club by Tuesday at 4 p.m., resulting in the club’s expulsion from the English league pyramid. The London Irish amateur club will continue to compete at Level 6, so the 125-year-old organization’s identity will not completely disappear.
The Rugby Football Union recommends major financial reforms for professional rugby in England.
“We currently contribute £25 million annually to the Premier League. But we cannot continue to invest in failing business models,” said Tom Ilube, chairman of the RFU. “This necessitates difficult investment choices. All three organizations that failed to make the playoffs this year had shaky business models for years.
The RFU also stated that it wished to provide “clarity” to other Premiership teams, but the union’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, acknowledged that it was yet another dark day for the sport. Sweeney stated, “This is devastating news for the entire London Irish community. Including the players, fans, staff, and volunteers to whom this club means so much.” After six months of fruitless takeover negotiations, players and staff owed 50% of their May pay. HM Revenue and Customs has also issued the club with a petition for dissolution for unpaid tax.
Bristol Bears, who finished ninth in the Premiership last year, will play in the European Champions Cup after Irish’s downfall. It also places Irish players in an unenviable position, as the rosters of other Premiership clubs are nearly full for next season and the salary limit will not increase from £5 million to £6.4 million until the 202425 season. England’s Henry Arundell and Tom Pearson are wanted by Bath, but many of their countrymen’ prospects are uncertain.
Wasps’ and Worcester’s downfall left few French Top 14 roster openings and a congested market for unattached players. It could even force several individuals to reconsider professional rugby as a career.
The RFU and Premiership Rugby have announced a hardship fund to assist affected players. It won’t help those who saw Irish as more than a rugby club. The RFU will take over the attack-minded team’s academy, which finished fifth last season.
There is also the matter of the club’s Sunbury-on-Thames training facility, which houses the club’s amateur section. London Irish amateurs have a 15-year lease to play at the club’s Hazelwood complex, but the land is owned by London Irish Holdings, one of the companies identified in the winding up petition served last week by HRMC to the club’s officials.
With approximately £30 million in debt, the club’s professional division is now effectively defunct. As with Wasps and Worcester, multiple individuals and organizations are to blame, many of whom have been in denial. In 2019-20, signing former Wallaby lock Adam Coleman on a reputed £900,000-per-year deal was a huge gamble.
The club’s lengthy stay in Reading also drew them away from their primary fan base in London. And Brentford FC did not want to extend the Exiles’ stay at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Fans liked the club’s new “home,” but many thought local out-of-town fans weren’t properly marketed to.
It places the entire English game at a crossroads, with several other clubs struggling under the weight of Covid loan repayments and no definitive agreement on how the Championship fits into a rebranded Premiership. The government has already announced that it will assist the RFU and Premiership Rugby in achieving “sustainability in the professional game” as a result of the apparent failure of the existing model.
London Irish acknowledged the 202324 suspensions in a statement and insisted, despite everything, that “the club remains in active discussions with the RFU regarding any circumstances that could result in the suspension being lifted.”
Due to financial concerns, Grenoble was demoted to the third tier and penalised six points for the forthcoming season. The club has appealed the decision.
