Rugby Union Receives £135 million as part of Government Sport Bailout

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Rugby Union Receives £135 million as part of Government Sport Bailout

The Government has handed Rugby Union a lifeline with a £135 million bailout. This comes as part of the overall £300 million package to support sports during the pandemic.

For a while now Rugby Union has been calling out for some government support. The lack of fans in stadiums and the extra costs involved with playing rugby during the pandemic have put a lot of pressure on the sport from top to bottom.

The package encompasses the entirety of the Rugby Union with different levels allocated different amounts. David Challis takes you through all the intricacies as it looks like Rugby Union gains some semblance of stability for the sport.

Rugby Union has received the most support as part of this Government bailout ‘winter survival package’. Top-flight football has not received any support with Premier League football clubs expected to support other EFL clubs.

Cricket has also not received any support. The reasoning behind this has been due to the fact that this package aims to support sports over the winter period. Cricket is mainly a summer sport and therefore the decision was taken to exclude it.

Premiership Rugby receives £59 million from the government

As part of the £135 million, £59 million of that will go to Premiership clubs. The expectation is that the 13 clubs will split this evenly to help them weather the storm before they can begin operating as normal.

The RFU itself will receive £44 million in order to offset the losses incurred by having to close Twickenham during the Autumn internationals. This money hopefully will allow the RFU to stave off any more redundancies in the company.

Clubs in the Championship will also receive £9 million as part of the package. These clubs had effectively refused to resume play without fans. This was because Championship clubs felt it was not financially viable to operate without fans. Hopefully, this means the Championship could resume with this package in place.

The grassroots game will also receive £23 million. There has been no confirmation of how this will distribute itself across the country. In any case, this should provide a lifeline to many suffering clubs across the nation.

There is yet to be any reaction to the news from the RFU or Premiership Rugby to the news. Although many organisations may have felt they should have received more this should still provide some welcome support to all sports.

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