‘We need to do something drastic’ – English rugby’s financial woes

The study was published by UK corporate recovery and insolvency firm Leonard Curtis, which found that only three clubs – Leicester, Northampton and Gloucester – would be financially viable without the backing of wealthy owners.

By aggregating the latest publicly available audited figures, the report found that 10 clubs collectively lost around £30.5m in the year 2022-23. Overall, the clubs have net debts of £311m, with nine having made losses of more than £1m during the same campaign.

Balance sheet insolvent means that a company’s liabilities outweigh its assets, which could prevent them from paying debts as they fall due.

In the report’s foreword, former England international, Wasps and Northampton Saints player, James Haskell, calls for change and said: “For me, unless the game is run and sold properly it will still be a sleeping giant in years to come.”

The Premiership has already lost three clubs in recent years: Worcester, Wasps and London Irish.

“From what I have seen, experienced and learned, my belief is that the old school values, amateur ethos, and poor business acumen have led to the creation of a top-tier sport in England where in 2022-23 several Premiership clubs could be in financial difficulties,” said Haskell.

“It is a sport that has lost three of its teams in a very short period and appears not to have any plan to rectify the damage in the others. Now, Covid-19 didn’t help but the overwhelming trend of loss-making was there before the pandemic, and even with the boost of CVC money this has continued and will continue unabated.”

The report’s Financial Performance Index ranked clubs based on their results on and off the pitch between 2018-19 and 2022-23, and found that the Harlequins side was the best performing club in the Premiership across financial and sporting performance. Harlequins narrowly pipped Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers. Newcastle Falcons were at the bottom of the table.

Harlequins also posted the best revenues, followed by Saracens while Sale Sharks and Newcastle Falcons brought in the lowest amount of money.

Additionally, the table showed that no Premiership club made a profit during the 2022-23 season. Gloucester Rugby came the closest with a loss of just over £0.5m, but all other clubs posted losses in excess of £1m. Saracens’ losses were as high as £5.3m.

“I had hoped that in reading this report there would be more positives to take from it but I think this is now a line in the sand moment, where all the spin and bravado around how rugby is faring needs to stop and we need to do something drastic,” said Haskell.