Wesps director Lawrence Dallaglio has revealed the club’s financial future will be “much brighter” in the coming days as their season kicks off on Sunday in Gloucester.
The Midlands club owes bondholders £35 million after investing in a scheme in 2014 to raise money for the club and pay off its debts. Those investors should have been paid back in May. Wasps have also been inside, according to the BBC discussions with HMRC on unpaid tax; have had to manage refunds on a Sport Survival Package loan; and failed to pay Coventry City Council an agreed fee to take over the leased land adjacent to their home in Coventry Building Society Arena.
But Dallglio, 50, has reassured supporters that the situation will improve in the short term.
“There will be some statements in the coming days that will present and paint a much brighter picture about the club,” Dallaglio told Telegraph Sport. “There are a number of sides to the Wasps business that make it both complex and unique: there is a rugby club that, like any club, has had its challenges; then there is a company on the other side that, contrary to what you might read, is doing well. The complexity is that the rugby club is wrapped up in the business; so what becomes – and can become – is not necessarily the big picture.
“They have a bond that needs to be refinanced and I would like to be more outspoken, but I can’t at the moment. There will be some statements that will hopefully put us in a much better position, but there is no immediate threat to that.” the club.” .
“Nothing is ever as reported. Someone like me knows that better than anyone. Every story has three sides. There is one side, the other side and the truth.”
Dallaglio made 326 back row appearances for Wasps over an 18-year span, leading the club to four Premiership titles and two European Cups. He has been the director of the club since 2015. Despite an emotional connection, his concerns transcend his club.
“I’m emotionally attached to rugby – not just wasps,” added Dallaglio, who won 85 caps for England. “There are currently five clubs for sale, so please don’t sit there and tell me that rugby unions in this country have no challenges.
“But it’s not in crisis. The future of rugby has a lot of potential, but I don’t think the game has grown exponentially since I retired; the game has been professional since 1995 and the same problems that existed then exist still now.”