Saudi Arabia in talks to buy stake in Tigers

[fentiger]

Well the Saudis have managed to get Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren in the same room and working together so If they can do that then they are capable of anything! funny what a pound note can do though!

Exactly, and if they could make the RFU wake up and smell the coffee they truly would have worked a miracle!

[Bouncyben]

At the end of the day Tigers are a professional sports team. If the Saudi’s are offering money that could save the four teams, then they would be stupid not to accept it.

If we want the game to grow and thrive we have to do away with outdated thinking. Imp

[longlivethecrumbie]

There have been, allegedly, a couple of since deleted posts on the Falcons Instagram account citing an agreement with the Saudi's. These have been reported by Rugby Inside Line:

https://twitter.com/RugbyInsideLine/sta ... 27469?s=19

https://twitter.com/RugbyInsideLine/sta ... 82324?s=19

[Chobbsy]

Might be in the minority with this but I don’t mind this. It would secure our future in a time where every penny counts would rather have tigers around than end up like wasps London Irish and Worcester. I know we’re not in an immediate danger but you never know what might happen.

I feel for this to work salary caps would need to be increased to enable clubs to keep English talent in England and not off to Japan and France, however if the salary cap is increased we are then back to the issues we had with Wasp, Warriors and Irish for the clubs not invested in.

[longlivethecrumbie]

I can't take credit for this - it was posted by Rugby Inside Line earlier today but does give a (fairly horrendous) view of the state of finances in top level rugby in England:

Gloucester -£0.39m
Sale -£0.44m
Saints -£0.47m
Tigers -£1.44m
Exeter -£2.38m
Bath -£3.26m
Quins -£3.65m
Bristol -£4.55m
Sarries -£5.29m

Falcons TBC

[TigerFeetSteve]

I can't take credit for this - it was posted by Rugby Inside Line earlier today but does give a (fairly horrendous) view of the state of finances in top level rugby in England:

Gloucester -£0.39m
Sale -£0.44m
Saints -£0.47m
Tigers -£1.44m
Exeter -£2.38m
Bath -£3.26m
Quins -£3.65m
Bristol -£4.55m
Sarries -£5.29m

Falcons TBC

It's also incredibly misleading... (no surprise from RIL)

Much better summary from sk88

https://twitter.com/spkeene/status/1773 ... cZGaw&s=19

[sk 88]

Yeah, it's even worse than the RIL post! Almost every club had some funny tax on loss business that I don't really understand. Some of them seem straightforward surrendering of losses (like Sale).

[mol2]

Sponsorship or loan with no expectation or obligation to repay are effectively the same thing in terms of cash flow but. One appears as income, the other doesn’t. If you make a loss you won’t pay tax on profits.

If the sponsor loans the money and then subsequently writes it off as a loss, the tax position is the same.

This has to be the case or their bank accounts would be empty in no time. However if you do hit a cash flow problem it may prove difficult to borrow money if your books show a long history of losses!