This archive report was first published on 5 May 2020.
Published on May 5, 2020, UK sports leaders have sounded the alarm on the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their respective sports.
Bill Sweeney, the chief executive of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), warned that the professional game could be catastrophic if it cannot return within the next year.
England's RFU has already lost £15 million due to the crisis, and Sweeney revealed that the total loss could be £107 million if the autumn internationals are cancelled.
"Eighty-five percent of our revenues come from hosting men's internationals at Twickenham," Sweeney told a meeting of the UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee.
"If this was to be prolonged and go into the summer of next year and the Six Nations games were impacted then it would be a catastrophic impact on rugby union in England," he added.
Tom Harrison, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), also spelled out the gravity of the financial crisis facing his sport.
The ECB's new Hundred competition has been delayed until 2021, and even if Test matches can go ahead later in the summer, they are likely to be behind closed doors.
"We anticipate with no cricket this year a worst-case scenario could be as bad as £380 million," said Harrison on the loss of revenue faced by the ECB.
"That would be the loss of 800 days of cricket across all of our professional clubs and the ECB. That is the worst-case scenario for us this year," he added.
English Football League (EFL) chairman Rick Parry also warned of the dire prospects for football clubs below the Premier League.
"We are heading for a financial hole of about £200 million by the end of September," said Parry.
"We have a great deal of uncertainty around next season of course, the great undetermined matter being when we're going to return to play in front of crowds, which for the EFL is absolutely critical," he added.
