Rugby chiefs accused of "failure on epic scale" by MPs amid Wasps and Worcester demise - The Mirror

RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney and Premiership Rugby CEO Simon Massie-Taylor came under fire for failing to prevent the devastating demise of Wasps and Worcester

Rugby bosses Bill Sweeney and Simon Massie-Taylor were called to resign by MPs as they were strongly blamed for the devastating demise of Wasps and Worcester.

RFU chief executive Sweeney and Premiership Rugby CEO Massie-Taylor faced tough questions from a select committee from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on Thursday over the financial implosion of the two Premiership clubs.

Wasps and Worcester - two institutions of English domestic rugby - both plunged into administration in October and were subsequently relegated and suspended from the top flight.

The simultaneous financial downfall of two top-flight clubs has prompted huge clamour for change to the wretched state of the sport amidst Premiership rugby's crisis. And DCMS chair Julian Knight MP slammed RFU boss Sweeney for allowing Worcester to be run into the ground by maligned owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham.

Sweeney was accused by Knight of failing to carry out an altered fit and proper persons test on the owners, despite learning that the pair had been sanctioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

"It looks to me frankly, that you seem to be living in isolation in your ivory tower," Knight told Sweeney. "This story is as old as the hills, allowing someone you later discover to have been banned by a major institution's SRA, to retain ownership of a rugby club, and then you're not even banning them after they've driven it into the ground?

"You, frankly, have failed in this instance, and so has the RFU. Should you not be looking at your own position?"

Worcester's owners have debts of over £30million, while the Wasps owners now owe more than £100m after their own dramatic demise. And strong criticism was reserved at the hearing for Premiership boss Massie-Taylor.

Knight lambasted Massie-Taylor for his apparent neglect that saw the two sides go under, comparing the downfall to finances within English football in a failure on an 'epic scale'.

"I have never come across anything as shambolic with a lack of thought towards people in your own game in my entire time as a select committee member.," Knight said. "If this happened in the Premier League, the head of the league would resign on the spot. I don’t know how you can come to this committee and say what you’ve said with a straight face."