Worcester Warriors will return as a club as part of an expanded Championship of 14 teams with a raft of names already having received conditional offers to play for the regenerated side for next season.
At a press conference at Sixways Stadium – Worcester’s base during their time in the Gallagher Premiership and their future Championship home, too – the Rugby Football Union’s tier two board, alongside Warriors owner Chris Holland, green-lit the return of a club which went to the wall in October 2022.
Worcester will form part of a revamped Championship next season, but the two other “phoenix clubs”, Wasps and London Irish, will not be joining them. The league will comprise the current 12 Championship clubs alongside the one promoted club from National League One as well as the Warriors.
It is understood that Wasps, which is also owned by Holland, and the Exiles are still some way off fully fledged returns. Other National League One sides such as Birmingham Moseley, Plymouth Albion, Rams and Richmond have already been assessed against the league’s minimum requirements and have expressed an interest in joining the league in the future.
In order to have their request to join next season’s Championship accepted, Worcester had to go through what Holland described as “a very detailed and challenging process; three months of going to the dentist, effectively” to prove that the club had met the minimum operating standards and growth requirements to parachute into the second tier of English rugby.
Worcester have committed to paying off the financial debts to rugby creditors left by the previous owners as well as the DCMS’s Covid recovery loan. Had they not agreed to reimburse the rugby creditors, the Warriors would have had to start from the bottom of the English rugby pyramid just as London Welsh and Richmond did when they fell into administration in the 1990s and 2010s.
“What we demanded of Worcester was more than any other club which is currently in tier two,” said Simon Gillham, chair of the tier two board. “We demanded conditions and did not allow them any wriggle room. As a result of that, they have provided us with a substantial financial guarantee, which is currently in an RFU special account – I think that is a first in English rugby, in terms of financial discipline and assurance.
“The second, very important point, is that Worcester Warriors have committed to paying off financial debts left by the previous owners to rugby creditors; that is an extremely important point. They have also made substantial payments to the administrators and entered into an agreement with relevant parties which will result in the money owed to DCMS and HMRC all being paid back.
“The long discussions were intense and lively in the tier two board and we have discussed every pro and every con in detail. There have been some difficult conversations with unsuccessful clubs but I’d like to say how much they’ve taken place in the spirit of rigour and mutual respect, which bodes well for the future.”
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