By Steffan Thomas
Copyright walesonline
Scarlets investors House of Luxury have pulled out of a move to purchase a majority share in English Championship club Coventry, according to reports. HOL announced its investment into Scarlets in August with the intention of acquiring a 55% share in the club should they survive the Welsh Rugby Union’s proposed radical restructuring of the professional game . The Telegraph are reporting a deal which would have seen HOL acquire a 55% stake in Coventry has collapsed due to a lack of clarity around promotion and relegation. The Rugby Football Union are currently in discussions with Premiership Rugby (PRL) about creating a franchise league and suspending relegation from the Gallagher Prem in order to become more attractive to overseas investment. Former WRU CEO David Moffett heads up HOL’s sports and entertainment department and has revealed the lack of clarity over promotion and relegation has seen the deal collapse. “We were interested in coming to an agreement with Coventry,” Moffett told the Telegraph. “We liked the fact they are a 156-year-old club which has been knocking on the door of promotion, have invested in their infrastructure and community to keep the professional game afloat in the area. “We were very impressed with their plans. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby. “But the more we did our due diligence, the more it became obvious that this was not something we could do at this point in time because the RFU and PRL [Premier Rugby Limited] are in a state of disarray. “There’s no way we can invest in a team, no matter how good they are, when they do not know what their future looks like.” Moffett has never been shy of voicing his opinion and recently called the WRU’s plans to cut the number of professional clubs in Wales to two “a crock of s**t.” He is incensed that promoted clubs have to pay circa £25m to buy a “P” share in the league. Get the latest breaking Welsh rugby news stories sent straight to your inbox with our FREE daily newsletter. Sign up here. “I understand if a company wants to buy in with no history then you can charge them,” Moffett told the Telegraph. “But to charge an organisation which for 156 years has been helping to build rugby within its community, and then have the audacity to say if you do get promoted you are not going to get the same amount of money as we give to the others, that’s absolutely ridiculous and it is wrong. “It’s abhorrent that any club that goes up has to pay to become a member club. Join WalesOnline Rugby’s WhatsApp Channel here to get the breaking news sent straight to your phone for free “Those clubs were given their shares in the Prem and are now saying these new entrants to pay a hefty fee to come in so we can recover some of our losses. “I also ran the NRL in Australia and they take a completely different view. “With expansion teams, they say we are going to give you the same amount of money, $20m Australia dollars [£10m] roughly, as all the other teams because their view is that the more successful the new teams are, the more successful the league will be.” WalesOnline has been told any potential investment in Coventry would not affect HOL’s commitment to the Scarlets.
