I assume you mean trading insolvently (although insolently is just as suitable)? Just googled this, and there are potentially serious consequences for directors of companies if they continue to trade knowing that they are going to become insolvent, thus causing additional losses to the company and its creditors.
You can start with an ambition to be the biggest rugby club in the world or whatever, persuade people it’s realistic, do deals with public bodies and other businesses, sell bonds to finance it etc., but surely when it becomes clear it’s failing there’s a moral (and/or legal) duty to minimise the losses? And the Directors must have known they’d reached that point a long time ago. So what action will they face?
I agree, given the level of debt, how could they have ever dreamed that they’d be able to turn things around?
It looks like they’d been losing millions every year and had no plan to cut cost / realistically refinance. Even if they had got HSBC to refinance the bond scheme there seemed no way of paying it off.
I’ve no time or inclination to go through the previous years accounts (OSB?) but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some cooking of the books to make things look less bad.
HMRC (us, the taxpayer) are in for (7?) millions and also Sport England (government (us the taxpayer) (£14m?). It’s almost criminal.
How could that ever stack? If a football club goes under there is the slightest plausible answer that the directors believed the player transfer contracts had a value to balance the books in some way. Rugby? No.
It needs looking at and people brought to account.