Former players of Worcester Warriors are seeking compensation potentially running to hundreds of thousands of pounds from the owners who are proposing to relaunch the club and enter a revamped Championship next season.
Claims from up to 50 former Warriors players relating to the period leading up to them being made redundant in October 2022 are understood to be based on a demand for five weeks’ wages plus image rights.
Players must provide information on what they believe they are owed to the new Warriors entity, owned by Junction 6 Limited and its chairman Christopher Holland, with a deadline of Thursday 1 May, which is 28 days from the date of the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) public announcement of the offer for the new club to join the new Tier 2 league.
An RFU condition of Warriors returning at this level, as opposed to starting again at the bottom of the league ladder, is for “rugby creditors” of the previous entity to be paid off.
“Rugby creditors” is a term that exists in the RFU’s regulations, not as a law of the land, and comprises “players, ex-players, coaches, medics, physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches and any other worker of the insolvent club; referees; registered agents; other rugby clubs or rugby bodies in England or elsewhere; the RFU and any RFU subsidiary or associated undertaking; any constituent body; and any other person or entity paid directly and exclusively by the insolvent club and who directly supports the ability of that insolvent club to play rugby”.
Chairman Christopher Holland has asked for patience (Photo: Getty)The image rights claims in a small number of players’ cases could run into tens of thousands of pounds.
There are also around 40 former members of Warriors staff, including coaches, who are entitled to claim, and some of those are for months of pay rather than weeks.
Former consultant Steve Diamond, now the director of rugby at Newcastle Falcons, said in March he is one of the creditors and he told The i Paper this week: “I have provided the information to the historic-claims people, it’s right and equitable that this is being done, and I am pleased with the process, so far.”
In a 10-page letter sent to potential creditors this month, and seen by The i Paper, Holland’s company Junction 6 Limited says it has no books and records from the two relevant former companies, WRFC Trading and WRFC Players.
Junction 6 are therefore taking steps to “examine the full scope of any claim and to ensure that we are complying with the obligations that the RFU have placed on us”.
The RFU could be required to rule on any disputes, with the clock ticking towards next season.
The players are being guided through the claims process by the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA).
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Last year players received “protective awards” of top-up compensation after an employment tribunal pursued by the RPA for a lack of consultation prior to being made redundant, but the current claims are different and additional.
Holland said on 3 April the new Warriors had made conditional contact with players with the aim of forming a squad for next season. It is thought likely some of the claimants would be hoping to play for the new club, who plan to play at the same Sixways Stadium as the old team.
The topic is a conflicting one in English rugby, summed up by two former employees who are making claims for back pay, and told The i Paper they wish to receive what they are owed and for all regulations to be complied with, while recognising the possible good news of fresh jobs being created and a rugby community restored.
Other clubs have simply gone bust and left the debt.
This alternative approach by Holland’s company is bound up in the process of taking over a valuable site at Sixways, and they have openly stated the success of their plan to bring professional rugby back to Worcester would rest on creating non-rugby revenue from industrial and retail units, padel courts, a medical centre, a 120-bed hotel, and drive-through electric charging points.
Junction 6 said in the letter “we do not have unlimited resources” and asked if rugby creditors would accept a phased repayment of their claims, or to gift the sums they are owed to a Warriors community rugby programme.
In return they would be invited to a players’ lunch, “where you can enjoy some food and a behind the scenes look at our progress with players and staff”, and be commemorated in a supporters’ wall to be built in the stadium.
Other creditors under the law included HMRC over unpaid tax, and the Government who via DCMS made Covid-survival loans totaling £15.7m to Worcester Warriors during the pandemic in 2021, which with interest gave a debt of £16.1m.
A statement made at the Warriors’ relaunch on 3 April said Junction 6 would “repay the outstanding DCMS loan in full” with “the final tranche… due to be paid at the end of 2025”.
The outstanding total is not known but administrators Begbies Traynor reported to Companies House in September 2024 that DCMS had been paid £9.8m after the receipt of a similar sum from Premiership Rugby Limited to buy back the old Warriors’ P share in the top league.
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