Steve Diamond launches bid to takeover Worcester Warriors

Steve Diamond is at the head of one of the two main consortiums looking to take over the financial-stricken Worcester Warriors.

The former Worcester Warriors Director of Rugby has financial backing from two unnamed investors while former Leicester chief executive Simon Cohen is part of his consortium.

"My goal is a sustainable business able to compete back in the Premiership within three or four years," Diamond explained.

"Sixways Village is what we will call the business if we're successful."

Diamond added: "Simon [Cohen] has been very helpful to me with the experience he has of building a hotel when he was at Leicester but, for those who think this sounds like a property deal, that is vastly secondary to what we plan to evolve over the next two to five years."

Worcester Warriors have been suspended for the remainder of the season and relegated to the Championship after going into administration on 5 October.

"You've got to have a certain amount of charisma about you to convince new players to come to the Championship," he said.

Diamond revealed that he has received job offers and may have to take one of them if the consortium is unsuccessful. 

"Warriors have already lost 20 players since entering administration. It's unchartered waters for me to go into the Championship, where I've never coached and never played and I've had a couple of job offers. Do I want to take one of them? I may have to if we don't get this through." 

Diamond added that he has already presented details to Premiership chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor and his Rugby Football Union counterpart Bill Sweeney.

"I think there's more than one horse in the race. But I've got my investors in place and my senior management team and my high-performance department - and recruitment has to come now," he said.

"The investors' names will remain in the background before we go before the RFU to do their fit and proper persons' test."

One of the reported investors is believed to be Adam Hewitt, a Hartlebury-based local businessman. The other Diamond revealed "is a property developer specialising in waste management who I've known for 25 years".

"The first concern is to sort the creditors out," he said.

"The administrators have a statutory duty to get in as much money as they can for the creditors as possible.

"DCMS [Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport] did a brilliant job helping rugby clubs survive during the Covid pandemic but DCMS and other creditors wouldn't want to see Worcester in the same boat in 12 to 18 months' time."