By A38
#59868
https://www.london-irish.com/news/club- ... WY_0TvI8uQ

The LI statement this morning is in response to the Daly Mail's story that salaries were in danger of being delayed this month.

Florida @ Buyout and financial trouble

At Worcester we can clearly sympathise as I would expect to see a flurry of rumours and speculation as to what the future holds for LI. Hopefully some significant investment will scotch all such rumours and calm will be restored. I do hope so.

The problem though is knowing what is in it for any potential investor - other than the certainty of not seeing any monetary return on that investment and the probability of never seeing any money back ever.

It's just another chapter in the story of a Premiership which can only exist on the back of rich altruistic benefactors.

For the immediate future I expect to see the LI board full of rumour and speculation. We know that pattern only too well.
By SimonG
#59886
Clubs being propped up by longstanding wealthy supporters is one thing. Clubs being propped up by wealthy folks with no history of supporting the clubs is another thing entirely and I would have thought a massive cause for concern.
By A38
#61688
The last item on LI forum - GHA @ Buyout and financial trouble - is I think an article from the Telegraph,

It is pessimistic as to LI's future.

We can only sympathise because we know only too well waiting to know if the axe is indeed going to fall and, it it does, what happens afterwards.

The key would appear to be Crossan. LI supporters on the SN board are optimistic that he will, if the US monies do not arrive, continue to support their club with his money for at least another season.

Maybe they are are right, they know their man after all.

I hope they are - otherwise there could be three lots of supporters who have lost their club and who have found that re-emergence into the Championship is not as easy and inexpensive as might be thought.
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#61692
Telegraph is certainly more pessimistic in tone than the previous article.

Perhaps they’ve been reading Chris Foy.

I’m unclear as to the LI situation, I know Crossan picked up April salary bill at the last minute, but are there reports as to local suppliers’ payments, or delays with HMRC or the tax man?

Or is it as simple as Crossan simply wants to put no further money in to support presumed ongoing losses?
By SimonG
#61695
I guess every benevolent owner's generosity eventually runs out even if his cash doesn't.

Incredibly some on the LI SN board are already condemning Crossan for killing their club.
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#61696
Crossan’s personal net worth is variously reported as in the £45/55m bracket, which surely isn’t quite enough?

Mind you, one of the multiple websites consulted also reports Jason Whittingham as being worth £6m. I doubt he’s really worth £6. And he probably borrowed that.
By A38
#61763
Reading the LI boards on View from the 22 and Sports Network is difficult. The circumstances are far from identical to those we suffered very nearly a year ago but there are similarities.

There are the press reports which may or may not be accurate. There is the blind optimism that all will be well. There is the hope that "something will turn up", that the promised investment will indeed materialise. And there is the glimmer of the realism that all may not be well.

And in some ways Worcester is the cause because the RFU is determined never again to be accused of sleeping on the watch. Hence the conditions it has set.

From a distance, there appears to be three options for London Irish:-

a) the US investment arrives and with all conditions met preparations for season 23/24 can continue
b) the present owner continues to cover the club's trading losses for at least one more season and again the fixture list for 23/24 can be fulfilled
c) the present owner decides that he cannot continue to finance what has become a money pit and thus the club cannot show that it has sufficient cash flow to last the season. Accordingly it will not be allowed to take part in the Premiership.

As regards c), everybody is I suppose in uncharted waters and I for one am uncertain about what might happen.

What I do know however is that the club would be reduced to not a great deal more than a name if it cannot function in a league much like Wasps and Worcester save of course that, nominally at least, Worcester does have Sixways.

If that was to happen, the hope, the distant hope, for "the names" is that the rumoured reconstruction of elite rugby will somehow allow a renascence. But that in itself will mean that somebody will have to acquire the name, be fit and proper and also be able to show the financial resources to launch from cold a Premiership 2 level squad at a suitable location.

None of us, the supporters, have a map for the way ahead. I just hope that the RFU / PRL have an inkling about how matters will look in 12 months time. I wish I had confidence.
By Fuzzy Dunlop
#61776
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65751962

"The Rugby Football Union will decide on Wednesday whether to grant London Irish an extra week to complete a takeover.
The RFU agreed in principle to an extension on Tuesday, with one condition that the current ownership paid salaries due on Wednesday.

But the situation was complicated on Tuesday evening at a hastily arranged players' meeting.

There it emerged current owner Mick Crossan was offering to pay 50% of the salaries, rather than the full amount, with the rest due on completion of the takeover.

The RFU's club finance viability working group will make their recommendation to the RFU board on Wednesday."
By A38
#61794
From The Times timed at 11.am:-

London Irish will be ejected from the English league system on Wednesday night unless the club pay players and staff their full salaries for May to secure a lifeline from the RFU.

The "league system" i.e. they would join Worcester and wasps in the rugby wilderness??
By A38
#61819
I read it that if Irish cannot meet the RFU's conditions suspension from ALL leagues will follow. Am I right?
By SimonG
#61829
To be honest A38 I don't think it matters. The RFU said LI would be suspended if they didn't pay all the wages. They didn't and they weren't suspended so it doesn't really matter what they say this time does it?

I think we will all have to wait and see what the RFU actually do if indeed they do anything other than wait for others to make the decision for them (by the takeover actually taking place or LI giving up and folding themselves).
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#61971
Irish gone.

The SN Irish board reminds me so much of our feelings not so long ago.

I was never a fan of the MadStad, nor the awful pa “Come on you Irish” but that’s trivial now. Irish is a proud club with a proud history, and didn’t deserve this.
By A38
#61987
I suppose it was inevitable after the suspension news yesterday. London Irish are to be put into Administration.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65834979

The comments made by Crossan about the RFU board chair Tom Ilube's statement are "interesting".

Equally, one might ask which of the Premiership clubs have business models which are not fragile.
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#62036
This is all starting to sound so familiar.

The training facility, a separate entity, is confirmed as being included in the administration process.

Quote from The Evening Standard:-
A long-mooted takeover by a US-based consortium failed to materialise, despite more than six months of talks, leaving Irish’s 124-year history at an end and more than 100 staff out of work.

“The administrations comprise two parts of the business: London Irish Holdings Ltd, which owns the club’s state-of-the-art training ground, and London Irish Scottish Richmond Ltd, operators of the club,” read a statement from ReSolve. “We are currently exploring options for the business and welcome any approaches from interested parties.”

Hazlewood is 63 acres close to The Thames at Sunbury, and is home to the amateur club, which runs very much like WRFC. The land will be hugely valuable, it will be a tragedy if the world class omnishambles of the Premiership collapse brings down their Amateur set up.
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#62037
TeflonTed wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:12 am
This is all starting to sound so familiar.

The training facility, a separate entity, is confirmed as being included in the administration process.

Quote from The Evening Standard:-
A long-mooted takeover by a US-based consortium failed to materialise, despite more than six months of talks, leaving Irish’s 124-year history at an end and more than 100 staff out of work.

“The administrations comprise two parts of the business: London Irish Holdings Ltd, which owns the club’s state-of-the-art training ground, and London Irish Scottish Richmond Ltd, operators of the club,” read a statement from ReSolve. “We are currently exploring options for the business and welcome any approaches from interested parties.”

Hazlewood is 63 acres close to The Thames at Sunbury, and is home to the amateur club, which runs very much like WRFC. It’s flat, and is surrounded by housing and suburban infrastructure. The land will be hugely valuable, it will be a tragedy if the world class omnishambles of the Premiership collapse brings down their Amateur set up.
User avatar
By Latecomer
#62039
TeflonTed wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:22 am
TeflonTed wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:12 am
This is all starting to sound so familiar.

The training facility, a separate entity, is confirmed as being included in the administration process.

Quote from The Evening Standard:-
A long-mooted takeover by a US-based consortium failed to materialise, despite more than six months of talks, leaving Irish’s 124-year history at an end and more than 100 staff out of work.

“The administrations comprise two parts of the business: London Irish Holdings Ltd, which owns the club’s state-of-the-art training ground, and London Irish Scottish Richmond Ltd, operators of the club,” read a statement from ReSolve. “We are currently exploring options for the business and welcome any approaches from interested parties.”

Hazlewood is 63 acres close to The Thames at Sunbury, and is home to the amateur club, which runs very much like WRFC. It’s flat, and is surrounded by housing and suburban infrastructure. The land will be hugely valuable, it will be a tragedy if the world class omnishambles of the Premiership collapse brings down their Amateur set up.
I see what you did there Ted - took me a while though :)
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#62046
Latecomer wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 10:19 am
TeflonTed wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:22 am
TeflonTed wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:12 am
This is all starting to sound so familiar.

The training facility, a separate entity, is confirmed as being included in the administration process.

Quote from The Evening Standard:-
A long-mooted takeover by a US-based consortium failed to materialise, despite more than six months of talks, leaving Irish’s 124-year history at an end and more than 100 staff out of work.

“The administrations comprise two parts of the business: London Irish Holdings Ltd, which owns the club’s state-of-the-art training ground, and London Irish Scottish Richmond Ltd, operators of the club,” read a statement from ReSolve. “We are currently exploring options for the business and welcome any approaches from interested parties.”

Hazlewood is 63 acres close to The Thames at Sunbury, and is home to the amateur club, which runs very much like WRFC. It’s flat, and is surrounded by housing and suburban infrastructure. The land will be hugely valuable, it will be a tragedy if the world class omnishambles of the Premiership collapse brings down their Amateur set up.
I see what you did there Ted - took me a while though :)
It’s just what happens when the phone interrupts and you lose track of what’s what.

The London Irish SN board is starting to look like a cut and paste job from the Wuss board a few weeks ago.

It even has that troll called brownbottle manufacturing a spat with a poster, just like he keeps picking on centrethere in Wuss SN.

How do we poke JimJam into some sort of comment?
User avatar
By TeflonTed
#62048
SimonG wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 5:53 pm
Are you sure you haven't got the troll mixed up there TT?
Pretty sure.
centrethere has been on Wuss SN since 2006, not sure where bb came from, but he’s new to the Wuss forum.

centrethere got huge criticism (quite rightly afraid) for what looked like irrational support for the cowboys. And if he’s a bit of a nutter then at least he’s our nutter.
By SimonG
#62053
TeflonTed wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 7:49 pm
SimonG wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2023 5:53 pm
Are you sure you haven't got the troll mixed up there TT?
Pretty sure.
centrethere has been on Wuss SN since 2006, not sure where bb came from, but he’s new to the Wuss forum.

centrethere got huge criticism (quite rightly afraid) for what looked like irrational support for the cowboys. And if he’s a bit of a nutter then at least he’s our nutter.
I believe BB is a Quins supporter who has been posting on their SN site since the year dot. He seems to be a little more prolific elsewhere nowadays where he often challenges what people post but from what I have seen (and I wouldn't claim to have seen everything) he generally seems to do it in a reasonable way and often has a point.

(I'm not BB by the way!)
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