Worcester Warriors: Ex-boss Steve Diamond takes charge of Sixways takeover bid

Steve Diamond was in charge of first team affairs from January, having first arrived at Sixways in November 2021
Steve Diamond took charge of first-team affairs in January, having first arrived at Sixways in November 2021

Ex-Worcester Warriors director of rugby Steve Diamond is at the head of one of the two main consortiums looking to take over at Sixways.

Diamond, 54, who has financial backing from two as yet unnamed investors, will have former Leicester chief executive Simon Cohen as part of his consortium.

"My goal is a sustainable business able to compete back in the Premiership within three or four years," he said.

"Sixways Village is what we will call the business if we're successful."

Diamond added: "Simon has been very helpful to me with the experience he has of building a hotel when he was at Leicester

"But, for those who think this sounds like a property deal, that is vastly secondary to what we plan to evolve over the next two to five years."

Worcester went into administration on 5 October, after which they were suspended for the rest of the season and relegated to the Championship.

"You've got to have a certain amount of charisma about you to convince new players to come to the Championship," he said. "Warriors have already lost 20 players since entering administration.

"It's unchartered waters for me to go into the Championship, where I've never coached and never played.

"And I've had a couple of job offers. Do I want to take one of them? I may have to if we don't get this through."

Speaking at an online news conference on Thursday, Diamond added that he has already presented details of a reborn Worcester club's survival package both to Premiership chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor and his Rugby Football Union counterpart Bill Sweeney.

"I think there's more than one horse in the race. But I've got my investors in place and my senior management team and my high performance department - and recruitment has to come now," he said.

"The investors' names will remain in the background before we go before the RFU to do their fit and proper persons' test."

One is reported to be Hartlebury-based local businessman Adam Hewitt, already a major club sponsor both of Warriors and neighbours Kidderminster Harriers. The other Diamond revealed "is a property developer specialising in waste management who I've known for 25 years".

"The first concern is to sort the creditors out," he said. "The administrators have a statutory duty to get in as much money as they can for the creditors as possible.

"DCMS [Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport] did a brilliant job helping rugby clubs survive during the Covid pandemic but DCMS and other creditors wouldn't want to see Worcester in the same boat in 12 to 18 months' time."

The other interested consortium is still understood to be the one led by former Warriors chief executive Jim O'Toole, first outlined in August.

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Source: BBC Rugby Union News

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By adamreeves / Administrator, bbp_keymaster on Oct 27, 2022