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The Melbourne Rebels have been shut down by Rugby Australia after 14 seasons and will play their last game of Super Rugby next month.
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh informed Rebels staff and players of the impending closure at a 10am meeting on Thursday at AAMI Park.
The news came just hours before the Rebels players were due to fly out to Fiji for their last regular-season game on Saturday, and ahead of the club’s first-ever finals appearance the following week.
Waugh and Rugby Australia chairman Dan Herbert will address media in Melbourne on Thursday to explain the decision to shut down the club.
The Rebels have been in administration since January this year with debts owed to creditors exceeding $23 million including an $11.5 million debt to the tax office.
As a result of the Rebels’ administration, Rugby Australia assumed all payments for the players’ wages and funded the club for the 2023 season. It also stripped the club of its right-to-play licence.
A consortium led by business heavyweight Leigh Clifford, the former chairman of Qantas and chief executive of Rio Tinto, put forward a plan to fund the club until 2030 that was dependent, in part, on Rugby Australia handing back the licence.
But after receiving the details last week, Rugby Australia have elected to not support the plans and re-issue the licence. It now open the prospect of the consortium suing Rugby Australia for allegedly underfunding the club for several years.
Rugby Australia previously alleged that the club had misused funds it had given the club to pay the Australian Taxation Office.
After “scenario planning” discussions with RA in recent weeks about their futures, Rebels players will now enter in contract negotiations with head office and other Super Rugby franchises about moving to a new club.
No players can be forced to move elsewhere by Rugby Australia. Players who were contracted to the Rebels through to the end of 2025 have the option of leaving Australia and playing overseas, given their original contract is void.
The closure of the club could create further tensions between the sport’s governing body and the Victorian state government.
This week Victorian Sport Minister Steve Dimopoulos wrote to the newly installed president of Rugby Victoria, Elizabeth Radcliffe, reiterating his support of the Melbourne Rebels continuing to play in Victoria.
“The Melbourne Rebels are an important part of Victoria’s sporting landscape providing benefits for Victoria’s visitor economy by helping fill our professional sporting fixtures and major events calendar and providing pathways for Victorians in community rugby clubs,” Dimopoulos said in the letter.
The Rebels were born in 2010 when Super Rugby was expanded to 15 teams, and from seven Australian bidders, a Victorian team was chosen by Rugby Australia.
Leading businessman Harold Mitchell became the Rebels’ first owner and former World Cup winning Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen was recruited to build the new club.
With high-profile signings Danny Cipriani and Stirling Mortlock in the team, the Rebels played their first season in the 2011 Super Rugby competition but success on and off the field was hard to come by.
Before this year, the highest place finish for the Rebels was ninth in 2018, and financial struggles were also a constant feature off the field.
MORE TO COME
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