Worcester rugby players and staff could be out of work within days

Worcester’s players and staff are facing unemployment as early as next week as the plight of the crisis club grew more desperate on Friday.

WRFC Players Limited – the company that holds the player and staff contracts – is facing the prospect of liquidation as a result of a HMRC winding up order which is due to be heard next Wednesday. The company that holds the contracts has not been put into administration and while an adjournment to the hearing had been sought, it is not expected to be granted by HMRC.

Should liquidation materialise, it would prompt the termination of contracts of players and staff immediately and therefore deliver a considerable blow to any hopes of Worcester returning to the Premiership after their current suspension in anything like the guise in which they left it.

As reported by the Guardian, players were given conflicting information earlier this week as to whether they could leave immediately after the government announced the club was being put into administration on Monday. The Rugby Players’ Association was forced to inform players that they were still under contract because whereas WRFC Trading Limited was put into administration, its subsidiary, WRFC Players Limited has not been.

On Friday, players and staff were supposed to receive September’s wages. It is understood those payments have not materialised, allowing players to hand in their notice of 14 days and leave the club after a further fortnight. Before that, however, comes the hearing into the winding-up petition. Julie Palmer of Begbies Traynor, the appointed administrators for WRFC Trading Limited, told the Guardian that HMRC has signalled its intention to stick with the 5 October hearing rather than agree to a delay. Liquidation,