Worcester's debts include £16.1m in Government loans from the Covid Sports Survival plan, over £5.8m to ticket holders, suppliers, businesses and banks connected to the club, £2.1m in unpaid taxes to HMRC, £6.8m in payroll and over £2m to their former owners
Monday 21 November 2022 13:57, UK
A detailed report by administrators Begbies Traynor has revealed full Worcester Warriors debts total more than £30m, as the relegated Premiership club continue to seek a new buyer.
Former Worcester CEO Jim O'Toole is in pole position to complete a takeover, with the report sent to the club's creditors revealing O'Toole and James Sandford's consortium paid a £500,000 deposit to be able to negotiate exclusively until the end of November.
The report also states that former Warriors owners Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring claim they are still owed over £2m by the club.
Other findings show that O'Toole and Sandford's consortium have already invested more than £1m in the club, and paid off a £634,000 loan taken on land at Sixways taken by the previous owners.
WRFC Players Ltd - the company which held the contracts of Worcester Warriors' players and some staff - was liquidated in the High Court.
The winding-up petition heard concerned an unpaid tax bill of approximately £6m, and the result saw the contracts of Worcester's players immediately terminated.
Worcester then had their suspension from the rest of the Gallagher Premiership season and enforced relegation to the Championship confirmed by the RFU.
Former owners Goldring and Whittingham were also disqualified as company directors for 12 months following a court hearing in Cardiff in October for failing to file accounts for the financial year to 28 February 2021.
In the latest report, Begbies Traynor confirm the club owe the Government £16.1m in loans from the Covid Sports Survival plan, and still owe £2.1m in unpaid taxes to HMRC.
Ticket holders, suppliers, businesses and banks connected to the club are also owed more than £5.8m, while WRFC Players Ltd owed £6.8m prior to being wound up.
The administrators have also confirmed that even if the entirety of Worcester's remaining assets were sold, the prospective funds raised would not be enough to pay off the existing debts.
Joint-administrator Palmer said in the report that money owed to the HMRC is "highly likely" to be repaid, while the debt owed to the Government would be taken on by a future buyer.
