Rugby’s houses of cards

The news that Western Province, South Africa’s oldest rugby union, might be technically insolvent is tantamount to a distress flare being sent up over the whole of South African rugby.

Western Province’s disturbing financial results following hard on the heels of a disappointing set of financials from the mother body SARU, eliciting uncharacteristically harsh words about the lack of fiscal restraint aimed at unions by president Oregan Hoskins, have drawn attention to the fact that far from being the wealthy empire of common perception South African rugby is in dire straits.

With Western Province having joined the ranks of marginalised unions it arguably leaves only three unions, the Blue Bulls, the Sharks and the Cheetahs, as financially viable concerns and even that would be dependent on how you evaluate issues of debt, outstanding commitments and the ability to generate income.

The once-mighty Transvaal, now of course the Golden Lions, were once described as the richest amateur sporting body in the world but in just a couple of years since the departure of Louis Luyt find themselves with their backs to the wall while all the rest are either “technically” bankrupt or utterly insolvent – kept going by loans from and by their connections to the perceived powerhouse of the controlling body.

Boland have been left all but shattered by the Fidentia scandal, a shocking episode that also served to underline the financial incompetence of amateur rugby administrators, and the SA Rugby Union faces the prospect that debts (to it) incurred by cash-strapped unions will almost certainly never be repaid.

A number of unions have allegedly sold off assets to finance operations and, of course, most don’t actually own their stadiums or the ground on which they were built.

The reasons for this calamitous state of affairs are obviously plentiful but the two key issues are the advent of professionalism, which added massive player salary bills to the cost of running rugby, and runaway administration costs; the latter including a voracious appetite for first-class travel and accommodation.

Rugby, with its high profile, massive stadiums and prominent sponsorships, presents an impressive façade but as the recent financial statements have shown, if you look beneath the shining table top you will find cobwebs and legs infested by termites.

It is a serious situation for rugby, which has traditionally been the country’s strongest and wealthiest sport, to find itself in and it can no longer be wished away. South African rugby is in crisis; a crisis far more serious than anything presented by transformation or the performance of the Springbok team.