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Beleaguered Yorkshire face record losses of around £3m with the club at risk of administration as they face compensation payments to ex-staff and significant legal costs linked to the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal.
- Yorkshire faces financial crisis with club at risk of going into administration
- Latest figures will expose the cost of handling the Azeem Rafiq scandal
- The club faces a compensation bill for former staff amounting to almost £2m
Yorkshire are set to announce record financial losses of around £3m later this week with the club at risk of going into administration.
The dire financial results will reveal the full cost of Yorkshire’s handling of Azeem Rafiq’s racism allegations, with the club facing an ex-employee compensation bill of nearly £2m and incurring legal fees of several hundred thousand pounds.
The ECB disciplinary hearing sparked by Rafiq’s allegations begins on Wednesday and could see Yorkshire hit with a hefty fine, which given their poor finances they would find it difficult to pay.
The club pleaded guilty to four charges relating to its failure to address the use of racist language and taking another major financial hit from the ECB would put the county’s 160-year existence in doubt.
Yorkshire’s handling of Rafiq’s complaints of racist harassment, which they had been challenging in an employment tribunal, changed abruptly following Lord Kamlesh Patel’s appointment as chairman on 5 November 2021.
Yorkshire set to announce record £3m losses and risk going into administration
The latest club accounts will expose the cost of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal
Just three days later, Patel confirmed that he had agreed a £200,000 financial settlement for Rafiq despite admitting that he had not read the independent report into his allegations, as well as sacking four senior members of Yorkshire’s executive team.
The following month, Patel also sacked the entire Yorkshire medical and coaching staff of 16 despite the fact that many of them had never met Rafiq.
The club have subsequently admitted liability in the unfair dismissal claims with a total agreed severance cost to date of around £1.9m, but are still fighting a separate claim from ex-physiotherapist Wayne Morton for £566,000. .
Patel has also presided over a significant increase in Yorkshire’s wage bill over the past 12 months, with new director of cricket Darren Gough receiving a much higher salary than his predecessor Martyn Moxon, for example.
In addition, the Labor Life pair also became the first chairman in Yorkshire history to receive a salary, paying himself around £100,000 during his first six months in office on the basis that he was acting as chief executive, while the decision to offer free equipment and training to all youngsters enrolled in county youth programs without attracting a sponsor has also cost them around £400,000.
Yorkshire’s most recent accounts for 2021 showed losses of £795,000, a massive reversal of fortunes from the £6.4m profit posted in the last Covid-free fiscal year of 2019, but even that figure will be dwarfed by the announcement of this week.
In addition to their current losses, the club also has £14.9m of debt to the Colin Graves Trust, which they are seeking to refinance ahead of a £3m repayment due later this year.
Any new financial blow from the ECB would put the club’s future in doubt.
Lord Kamlesh Patel sacked Yorkshire’s entire coaching and medical staff amid scandal
That refund was due last November but was delayed because Yorkshire needed the money to cover payments and other legal costs.
Ironically, the club’s dire financial situation may lead to their receiving more lenient treatment from the ECB, which will not want the game’s most famous and successful county to go bankrupt.
Removing Headingley’s international status would doom Yorkshire to bankruptcy so they could get away with a small fine and points deduction this summer across all three formats.