THE government has been accused of an “entirely unnecessary and simply vindictive” campaign against senior figures of Jersey Reds – as a debate on whether to save the club continues in the States Assembly.
In a statement released on the club’s website, the Reds have said there is a “significant amount of disinformation being circulated” and denied that they had refused to meet Assistant Economic Development Minister Lucy Stephenson, who holds political responsibility for sport.
And, representatives from Jersey Reds chased for an update on a government decision for additional funding in the eight-day gap between the Council of Ministers deciding not to provide money and the club being informed.
It has been confirmed that ministers met on Tuesday 19 September to discuss a funding package – believed to be £800,000 – that would have gone towards helping the Reds through the 2023/24 season.
The Council of Ministers rejected the decision but nobody at the club was told until Wednesday 27 September, with the players and staff due to be paid two days later.
Last Thursday, the entire squad, including players who had been due to meet at the Airport to travel to Cornwall for a Premiership Cup match, were called to an emergency meeting to confirm that the Reds were to cease trading with liquidation appearing inevitable.
The statement on the Reds website reads: “The representatives of Jersey Reds are deeply disturbed by the significant amount of disinformation being circulated. Gordon Crawford and Mark Chown are not and have never been directors of the operational club. They are directors of the new company whose sole purpose was to raise funds from benefactors and pass it on to the club.
“While it is clearly the States’ decision to back the Reds or not, it is entirely unnecessary and simply vindictive to attempt to malign the individuals concerned. These people have invested an enormous amount of their own time and in some cases millions of pounds over many years to help create what has become an iconic Jersey brand. Nobody has been paid a single penny for their work – nor would they expect to be. Volunteers should be cherished, not victimised.
“With regards the outstanding items around deferred taxes and the Covid loan, these are items have been through due process with and agreed by government and are like the support offered by government to many businesses in Jersey.”
The government had provided £370,000 of emergency funding to the club between July and August. During Tuesday’s States sitting, Assistant Economic Development Minister Lucy Stephenson, who has political responsibility for sport, was asked why there was an eight-day delay between a ministerial decision being taken and the outcome being disclosed to the club.
She said: “There were efforts to contact one of the main parties who was unfortunately away – a Teams call was offered but could not happen [until the following week] due to their diary commitments.
“There has been a pattern of behaviour that saw difficulty in getting hold of some of the individuals involved, one of whom could not be there and wanted to be there face-to-face.
“The government position on long-term funding has been very clear during almost a year since a meeting that took place in November 2022.”
Ministers, as part of the States debate, released a comment paper outlining the reasons for not supporting additional funding, a letter from Deputy Stephenson to Mr Chown from January and business case reports.
The JEP has learnt that the club requested updates on at least two separate occasions between 19 and 27 September. On 23 September, the Reds played Exeter Chiefs at home – a match which was attended by Chief Minister Kristina Moore.
The Reds statement continued: “We understand [Deputy] Lucy Stephenson stated yesterday that we have been rejecting offers to meet with her, this is untrue. The last meeting we had with her was in November 2022. We have received no requests to meet with her since then. And in the two recent meetings with ministers, she did not even bother to turn up even though others joined remotely. It seems strange that a Sports Minister would show so little interest in interacting with what is the Island’s pre-eminent sports club, particularly where there so much government financial involvement.
“[Deputy] Kirsten Morel refused to provide an update of the decision of 19 September Council of Ministers [meeting], despite two email requests, until eight days after the decision was taken. Even then, he provided it to an incorrect party who was not an officer of the Jersey Rugby Club (Trading) Ltd which was the vehicle to which the government was providing funding. This failure to provide any update immediately, effectively condemned the Reds to cease trading as there was no time to find an alternative solution with just hours left until funds were required to pay wages. An update on day one would have at least given the Reds a chance to try to bridge the gap.”
The meeting between Deputy Morel and the club was not attended by either of Reds chairman Mark Morgan or Brian Morris, the two directors of Jersey Rugby Club (Trading) Ltd – the company responsible for the business activities of Jersey Reds.
The Reds also claim that the organisation’s accounts are “up to date” and have been “consistently and openly shared with government ahead of them granting any tax deferrals, loans, or grants”.
It continued: “The latest example of this is the open sharing of financial data with officers and Santander to facilitate the Santander review which government requested of Santander in June 2023 . This engagement by government also superceded Lucy Stephenson’s January letter, we believe.”
Last year, the professional and amateur arms of the rugby club were split, allowing Jersey RFC to enter the English league system.
“This has been effected and the amateur club is debt free and owns the assets at St Peter,” the Reds statement continued. “In order to sustain professional rugby investors/benefactors provided about £1,000,000 in funding for the 2022/23 season, out of £1,500,000 committed over a three-year period. In the event despite meetings with 30+ potential HNW investors in the last year further funding proved difficult to obtain. the government were asked for support in the June-October period in order for the Reds to confirm additional funding which was under discussion. Pledges of £500k+ for the 2023/24 season were received but were contingent on Government of Jersey support. When Government of Jersey declined the final £350k support on 27 September. this funding fell away and the directors of Jersey Rugby Club (Trading) Ltd resolved to cease trading to protect the interests of all creditors.”
After ministers refused to provide more money, Deputy Lyndon Farnham – under whose time as Economic Development Minister the Reds received hundreds of thousands in grant funding – launched a bid this week to get them to reverse their position.
Speaking to the Assembly, Deputy Farnham suggested that each pound spent by the government to support the club brought around £25 in economic benefit to the Island.
However, Deputy Morel said that was a “no evidence” that the Reds would become financially sustainable in the future and described the club’s finances as a “financial black hole”.
The debate began yesterday and was due to resume this morning.
