Worcester Warriors: Players now attempting to quit troubled Premiership club over unpaid wages
- Published
Worcester Warriors are still scheduled to start the new Premiership season at London Irish on 10 September
Several Worcester Warriors players have handed in their notice over 'breach of contract' issues, in the wake of their salaried wages still being unpaid.
On a day when Warriors director of rugby Steve Diamond attended the Premiership media launch in London, it was confirmed that Worcester will start the season as planned on 10 September.
But BBC Hereford & Worcester have been told that no wages have been paid.
This is despite assurances from owners Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring.
They insisted that players would receive their August wages by midnight on Wednesday, while non-playing staff would be paid 65% of their salaries on Thursday.
The club has yet to comment publicly, but staff have been told that a bank is holding up money transfers.
"Worcester are able to take the pitch and start the season but are not out of the woods yet, let's be frank about that," Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor said.
On Monday, Warriors flanker Kyle Hatherall informed the club that he was terminating his contract, adhering to a clause in the event of unpaid wages.
Hatherall's agent, John Andress, from Edge Rugby Management Limited, who also represents four other Warriors players, says the club is currently not releasing his player registration details.
"They're refusing to agree to his release," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "Our legal team is currently looking at it."
Andress, whose other contracted Warriors players are all considering their position, says Whittingham and Goldring have handled the players "poorly" - and that his agency is now taking up the matter with the Rugby Football Union.
Warriors have not responded to interview requests from BBC Hereford & Worcester, who have also contacted four other agents.
Together, they say they are collectively owed just under £300,000 by the club, while Andress says his clients are owed £70,000.
Warriors have budget for 'next three months'
Warriors, who have been served a winding-up petition by HMRC over unpaid tax believed to be more than £6m, are due to begin the new Premiership season at London Irish on 10 September - with a first home game eight days later against Exeter.
While they are set to start the season, Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor said: "Worcester are able to take the pitch and start the season but are not out of the woods yet, let's be frank about that."
And Diamond insists that, right now, the Exiles game is his only target.
Speaking at the annual press launch in London, as the Premiership marks 25 years since it began, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I have my job to do which is to motivate the squad, which is to get them ready for London Irish.
"I am not seeing us being in the same position in five weeks' time.
"We have got over this hurdle - which it looks like we have done - and it's been traumatic and anxious for a lot of people, but it happens in other businesses and in other walks of life, and we just have to get on with it."
Steve Diamond first arrived at Sixways last November as consultant before taking over when coach Jonathan Thomas was sacked in January
"There is a budget that has been put in place for the next three months. We can run as we have always run.
"On the field we have a great set of lads who are going to be more resilient after this episode. And the message is 'stick with us'. I am in the same boat.
"Communication is getting better. It is better to be direct and honest than not. That will serve Worcester going forward.
"A couple of players have got their agents to ring me, but there aren't many jobs out there. The English clubs are all salary capped up, and the French clubs can only take medical jokers."
'This could be the greatest thing that has ever happened'
As to how Diamond thinks it will all pan out, he has some sympathy with the owners who brought him as consultant last autumn before handing him full charge when existing head coach Jonathan Thomas was sacked in January.
"They have had some unfair press, and some fair press," he said. "What I will say is they have been very direct with me and I have tried to pass that honestly to the staff and players.
"I don't think time is an issue, but I think it would be foolish of them to keep doing this every month. We need a solution.
"I don't know whether the solution is the current solution about how rugby clubs are wrong, because none of them seem to be making money, Worcester are just first in the line being exposed with the frailties of professional sport.
"For me, this could be the greatest thing that has ever happened to Worcester. Because the resilience that those young lads and staff on and off the field have got over the last month, you couldn't get any consultant to come in and teach you that.
"It is a process you have to go through in life, and as sportsmen you don't often go through it.
"In tough times, as Sir Winston Churchill said, when you're heading to Hell you have got to keep on working. If you can get through it, then great, and I think we will."
Steve Diamond was talking to BBC Sport's rugby correspondent Chris Jones