Wasps threatened with winding-up order by HMRC over £1m unpaid debt

Wasps, the London club due to face Bath at Twickenham this weekend in the Guinness Premiership, have a winding-up order from the tax authorities over unpaid sums totalling more than £1m hanging over them, according to reports. HM Revenue and Customs issued a warning earlier this month and club is working to clear the debt as quickly as possible. Mark Rigby, the former Wasps flanker and captain who is now the club's executive chairman, said there was "no question" of the club going to the wall, but the move will be a stark warning to rugby in light of the events unfolding at Portsmouth in football's Premier League. A spokesman for HMRC would not comment on Wasps plight but said that the organisation took "a sympathetic approach to both individuals and business that have genuine short-term difficulties in paying the tax they owe". However, Rigby said he was "entirely comfortable" with Wasps' business position. "A club's financial health can be measured in a number of different ways," he was reported as saying by The Independent. "In line with businesses throughout the country, we are in dialogue with HMRC throughout the year, and as far as we are concerned we're confident we can make regular payments. "In terms of where the business is really at, we have an enormous amount of positive things ahead of us: a highly profitable Premiership match with Bath at Twickenham on Saturday, a home Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final for which we did not budget at the start of the season and the possibility of a place in the Premiership semi-finals. We also have ambitious plans to move to a new stadium in High Wycombe, for which we have strong support from the local council." More than 60,000 spectators expected to attend this weekend's match at Twickenham and expect revenue from the gate to help ease the financial pressure on the club. But they parted company with their chief executive, Paul Harrison, last week and will shortly lose two of their key players, the outside-half Danny Cipriani and the wing Paul Sackey, to lucrative contracts overseas.