TalkSPORT claims that the financial collapse of Waspss is the Gallagher Premiership equivalent to Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham going bust.
After an unprecedented crisis, English domestic rugby is now in a state of flux Worcester was the next to be suspended from the top flight.Due to financial turmoil.
Wasps pulled out of Saturday’s game against Exeter Chiefs because they could not guarantee players would be paid this month.
They will be expelled from the league for the rest of the season, and then relegated if the team fails to meet their next fixture against Newcastle Falcons.
Wasps will enter administration at a court hearing on Monday and hope to complete a takeover deal to cover debts totaling up to £37million.
talkSPORT’s rugby correspondent Russell Hargreaves revealed the relative magnitude of this event compared to Premier League football, and explained the context of Wasps’ money problems.
Besides a winding-up order from HM Revenue and Customs for £2million in unpaid tax, the club face having to repay a £35m bond from their relocation to Coventry in 2014.
Hargreaves said TalkSPORT Breakfast: “A Premier League equivalent? I know it doesn’t quite work, but we’re talking about Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs – that level of club.
“In and around the top few with great success, multiple domestic champions, multiple European champions.
“They had to make a big decision eight years ago to leave High Wycombe, where they were struggling and not growing, leave Adams Park and go up to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
“It never really worked. But you chuck in COVID on top, the debts were mounting, they totalled £35million.
“It was never going to get paid back in time.”
Kenny Logan, a former Scotland international, insists that Wasps are not the only troubled clubs and the Rugby Football Union. [RFU] must act to secure the game’s long-term future.
Logan spent seven years working with Wasps and helped them win one Premiership title as well as the Anglo-Welsh Cup twice.
He told talkSPORT: “There are other clubs on the verge of where Wasps are.
“The key thing now is the stakeholders getting together and thinking of the best way to move forward.
“There are no alarm bells here. This was a reality that rugby knew.
“They’ve just waited until it fell to do something. Wasps now have to try and survive.”
