Jersey Reds have confirmed plans to restructure the club and separate its professional and amateur arms.
At a general meeting held earlier this week, members unanimously supported proposals from the club’s board to secure the futures of both the amateur and professional sides of the club.
The proposal will see the professional side of the club become a new, stand-alone company, completely independent from the amateur club. This will enable the professional side to seek investors to enable the club to strengthen its position in the RFU Championship, where the Reds have competed since 2012.
At the same time, the restructuring will ensure the future of community amateur rugby in a stable financial position while maintaining all the services and facilities that have been part of the club for decades. This will include the adult Athletic and Women’s teams, as well as the mini and junior set-up that encompasses hundreds of young Islanders,
Chairman Mark Morgan said “After nearly seven years’ involvement, including six as Chairman, it has become clear to me, as well as to our board members, that running a fully-professional rugby squad owned by an amateur rugby members’ club is no longer financially feasible. No other rugby club tries to run a professional squad on this basis.
“This structure results in continual financial pressure on the amateur club and deprives the professional club of the opportunity to raise equity from private investors. A further consequence of this is that the professional club has limits on what it can ever achieve.
“The board therefore decided to strongly recommend to the membership that the professional club be separated out as a private company which could then raise equity by taking in private investors as shareholders.”
The Reds’ board will now work to implement the changes and will come back to the membership at another meeting on April 25th to seek approval for the final proposal.
Mark Morgan outlines the plans in an interview with Jersey Reds TV - watch it HERE
