Rebels set for liquidation as season starts
The embattled club’s powerbrokers are working on a last-ditch attempt to save the Victorian team three days out from their opening Super Rugby match.
The Melbourne Rebels are headed for liquidation, but the club’s powerbrokers are working on a last-ditch attempt to save the Victorian team three days out from their opening Super Rugby match.
The Rebels have been in financial decay off the field, with an unpaid stadium debt delaying game tickets being sold until Monday afternoon for Friday night’s match. But the club board is still scrambling to save the team headed for the chopping block next season.
The Australian understands that while creditors are now looking to liquidate the Super Rugby club, the Melbourne board want to extend the administration period in an attempt to “get a deal” on the club’s $20 million debt – including $8m of which the Rebels’ directors are liable for.
The Melbourne Rebels board is trying to delay for 120 days the creditors’ report due next week – in the hope of finding a white knight investor to potentially save the club or get a deal on the debt. But the board’s move means any sacked club employees won’t get access to their redundancy payments until later this year.
Melbourne Rebels chief executive Baden Stephenson was last week let go after a lengthy career with the Victorian club and is yet to receive his redundancy payment. Stephenson was one of 10 members of the Super Rugby club’s administrative staff who were made redundant. The remaining Rebels staff and coaches have been placed on four-month contracts to see out the Super Rugby campaign.
The Australian understands the club must be in liquidation for the redundant employees to gain access to the fair entitlements scheme – which is a legislative safety net scheme of last resort.
There is expected to be a meeting after the administrator report is tabled, where the creditors will vote on what the club will do next.
Rugby Australia said an extension is “unlikely” to aid the Rebels employees owed their redundancy payments.
“The administrators will ultimately make a decision on this – however, from a Rugby Australia point of view, we believe an extension is unlikely to benefit the Rebels’ employees and may not be in the best interests of other creditors,” a RA spokesman said.
Earlier this week, Melbourne coach Kevin Foote made a public call for fans to turn out in force to support the embattled team – who will play the ACT Brumbies on Friday night.
Despite the distraction and financial chaos of the club, Foote said he hoped a good crowd would turn up.
Foote admitted the financial chaos had been a distraction for his players but also stated the “initial shock” from the club’s future being in disarray had faded.
“We’re pretty focused now on the rugby … we’ve got to look to make Baden (Stephenson) and everybody else who’s been part of this journey really proud,” he said.
Foote has previously said he’d been told “things would remain as they are for the 2024 season” but seeing Stephenson “walk out of the building was very hard-hitting”.
“He’s such a good man and he does so much for us, so that was hard, and then with the rest of the staff as well, but that’s the reality that we’re in,” Foote said last week.
Last week the Rebels board claimed RA should be liable for around $8m of the Super Rugby club debt.
The Melbourne Rebels board members each received Director Penalty Notices in late November, which gave them 21 days to pay the tax or put the club into voluntary administration.
They didn’t pay the notices and the Rebels board members are now at risk of losing their homes over a $11.6 million tax debt. The Australian Taxation Office has made the seven board members personally liable for the club’s debt – or $1.65 million each – which they are now trying to shift on to RA directors.
There is a chance this could head to the courts, with the potential to ignite a bigger legal battle than the $4 million Israel Folau settlement. The Herald Sun reported the Rebels board are determined to head to court and demand that Rugby Australia, which is listed on player contracts, pays up to $8 million.
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