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SCARLETS: Club given 15 more years to repay taxpayers’ £2.6m — as accounts show just £5,380 left in the bank

The Scarlets have been given an extra 15 years to pay back £2.6 million owed to Carmarthenshire taxpayers, the club’s newly filed accounts reveal.

The money was lent by Carmarthenshire County Council and was originally due to be repaid in 2023. Under the new deal, the club only started paying back the loan itself this April — in equal chunks, spread over the years ahead.

Until then, the club had been paying interest on the debt at 4% a year.

The council has protected its money: the loan is secured against the club’s assets, meaning the council has first claim on them if the Scarlets ever couldn’t pay. The club has also promised not to borrow against anything it owns without the council’s say-so.

The detail is tucked away in the accounts filed this week — the same documents that showed the club losing more than £2m for the third year running.

And they show just how tight things got. On 30 June last year — the day the season’s books closed — the Scarlets had £5,380 in the bank, at a business turning over £10.2 million a year.

The club was also £259,303 into its overdraft.

Servicing its debts is costing serious money: £845,592 went out in interest alone during the year — more than £16,000 a week.

Altogether the club owes £11.5 million to its lenders, most of it to the council and the Welsh Rugby Union.

The WRU is owed around £9.5 million — much of it borrowed to survive Covid. But most of that is expected to be wiped away by the new deal between the union and the four professional clubs, which the accounts say was due to be signed last month.

The club’s bosses call that deal pivotal to putting the Scarlets on a stable footing.

There are real signs of improvement in the numbers. The annual loss shrank from £2.6m to £2.1m, the wage bill was cut by £1.5m, and the club’s backers put in £940,000 of fresh money during the year — followed by further “significant” investment in April.

On the pitch, it was a season of progress too: an eighth-place finish, a play-off quarter-final, and a return to Europe’s top club competition.

For the council, the loan is one part of a much bigger relationship. Its own commissioned report found the Scarlets pump £17.3m a year into the Carmarthenshire economy and support 336 jobs — and then council leader Cllr Darren Price called the club a catalyst for economic growth.

The accounts’ auditors are satisfied the club can pay its bills for at least the next 12 months, though they note it still leans on the support of the WRU, its funders, its directors and its fans.

Hanging over everything is the WRU’s plan to cut Wales’ professional clubs from four to three — leaving the Scarlets and the Ospreys fighting for one west Wales place, a situation chairman Simon Muderack says has created an unsettling backdrop for players, staff and supporters.

For Carmarthenshire taxpayers, the bottom line is this: £2.6m of public money, first lent years ago, now won’t be fully repaid until the 2040s — owed by a club the council itself says is worth £17m a year to the local economy.

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SCARLETS: Nigel Davies confirmed as boss for the long haul — as club posts third straight £2m loss

The Scarlets have confirmed Nigel Davies as their director of rugby for the next two seasons — as fresh accounts lay bare the financial pressure the Llanelli region is under.

Davies, a former Scarlets and Wales player, captain and head coach, returned to Parc y Scarlets on an interim basis in January and has now been handed the role permanently.

The club says he has spent the past five months leading a full review of its rugby operation — strengthening the coaching group, reshaping the squad and overhauling its performance, analysis and medical programmes.

Davies said it was difficult to put into words what the club meant to him, describing Scarlets as a huge part of his life for more than 40 years.

He said the work of the past five months was “only the beginning”, and that the club now had players, coaches and staff committed to building something supporters could be proud of.

Managing director Jon Daniels said Davies had made a significant impact since returning, and that his strategic review had been fully backed by the Scarlets board.

He said the appointment offered “continuity, clarity and leadership at a critically important time” for both the Scarlets and professional rugby in Wales.

But the announcement lands the same week as the club’s latest accounts, which show a loss of £2.1m for the year to June 2025, according to figures reported by the BBC.

It is the third year in a row the region has posted a loss of more than £2m, though the deficit is down from £2.6m the previous year.

Turnover fell from £11.3m to £10.2m, with gate receipts, sponsorship and money from the WRU all down, while the wage bill was cut from £8.24m to £6.94m.

The club’s debt remains above £10m, owed largely to the WRU and to Carmarthenshire County Council, which owns the Parc y Scarlets ground and is still owed £2.6m.

In notes accompanying the accounts, chairman Simon Muderack described the operating environment for professional rugby in Wales as “challenging” and “deeply uncertain”.

That uncertainty stems from the WRU’s plan to cut the number of professional men’s clubs from four to three — a move that would leave the Scarlets and the Swansea-based Ospreys competing for a single west Wales licence.

The union confirmed the three-club model in October 2025 and, despite a series of U-turns and delays, remains committed to reducing to three sides by the end of the 2027/28 season, with a decision on how to do so delayed again in recent weeks.

Both west Wales regions have spent the saga shoring up their positions, with the Scarlets confirming significant new investment from their existing funding group earlier this year.

The accounts note that the Scarlets are also in the “final stages” of signing the new Professional Rugby Agreement, or PRA25 — the deal the club says will relieve much of its Covid-related debt, including £4.8m owed to the WRU.

The Scarlets remain the only Welsh region yet to sign the agreement, having been expected to commit by the end of June.

Davies will lead the club into the 2026/27 season, with the squad back at Parc y Scarlets this week and further rugby announcements expected in the coming weeks.

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The club secures fresh funding from its existing backers amid financial uncertainty.

Scarlets and Ospreys face fight for survival as WRU confirms three-club model
West Wales’s two regions are left competing for a single professional licence.