Wasps & Worcester: 'If it can happen to a club the size of Wasps, who else might it happen to?'
- Published
Former Wasps chief executive David Armstrong says questions must be asked about the business model of English clubs
Former England wing Ugo Monye has expressed concern about the potential knock-on effect of Wasps and Worcester's plight as English club rugby's financial crisis deepens.
Wasps are set to enter administration one week after fellow top-flight club Worcester were wound up.
Monye says players must now broaden their understanding of finances.
"You think if that can happen to a club the size of Wasps, who else might that happen to?" said Monye.
Wasps, who have been suspended from the Premiership, have twice filed notice to get insolvency experts in to help with their debts, which run to tens of millions of pounds.
The Coventry-based club will not fulfil this Saturday's Premiership game at Exeter and say they expect to enter administration "within days".
Worcester were last week suspended and relegated to the Championship for next season, a day after players and staff had their contracts terminated, though the club are appealing against the punishments.
Wasps would also face relegation were they to go into administration as, under RFU rules, any club that enters administration is automatically relegated next season unless they can prove it was a no-fault insolvency.
Wasps had been hopeful of securing new funding to help with a £35m debt owed to bond holders following their relocation from London in 2014, as well as HM Revenue and Customs pursuing them for unpaid taxes.
"I think there is that element of uncertainty, I think that would be a natural response," former Harlequins player Monye told BBC Radio 5 Live when asked if players at other clubs will be concerned by recent developments.
"Speaking to Danny Care, he said that the owners of Harlequins Duncan Saville and Charles Jillings came in and talked through their finances.
"These are conversations which players ordinarily wouldn't be having. Finances would normally be distilled and located to 'what am I getting paid every month? What is my contract length and what is that worth?'
"Now people are having to have a broader sense of the club's finances and sustainability. Worcester seems to have had this butterfly effect. Of course they're separate and not one affects the other, but within a couple of weeks, Wasps."
In a joint statement on Thursday, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) called for more financial transparency, adding they are "working together to examine a range of options" with the "structure of the league" and "visibility of financial information" under consideration.
Speaking to BBC Sport, former Wasps chief executive David Armstrong said now is an "important moment to stand back and understand why two clubs have found themselves in such a difficult position".
"A lot of it has to come down to whether the business model is really working or not," said Armstrong, who has been linked with a bid to buy Wasps.
"You'll look around the financial statements of all the clubs in the league and there are very few that are actually making much money.
"So the question we have to ask ourselves is 'is the business model right?' Whether the level of central income being distributed is sufficient to match the costs of the clubs, and the current situation would suggest that it's probably not.
"It's time to reflect on how that can be improved and what we need to do to change the governance of the sport as well."
'Are we just scraping the surface?' - analysis
BBC rugby reporter Sara Orchard
Rugby union at a domestic club level is now in a very deep financial crisis and I think the language we use around this has to be careful.
We are now talking about the club game in dire need of leadership and strength before this gets worse.
Because that's the fear right now for anyone who follows club rugby, is how deep these problems actually go and are we actually just scraping the surface?
Wasps are one of the giants of the game. Six-time Premiership winners, two-time European champions. We say the names of Dallaglio and Dawson, everyone knows who we're talking about.
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