Ebbw Vale To Fight On In Welsh Premiership

Ebbw Vale rugby club will play in next season’s Welsh Premiership after a contingency plan between the club and the Welsh Rugby Union was agreed on Monday.
Chief Executive Tony Dilloway spearheaded the proposals which will see up to a dozen redundancies at the club.
A handfull of squad players are expected to be released form their
contracts and all administrative staff will lose their jobs.
In fact, such is the financial plight of the club that Dilloway has put himself on the dole.
All social activities at the club will also be stopped following the business plan which came just in time to save the Premiership outfit.
The package to save the club takes the form of a three-part business plan
which relies heavily on the WRU supporting the club in terms of income.
Directors loans will also me made available to help keep the club afloat and finally major cuts in the clubs expenditure will be made.
For Dilloway their were mixed emotions after almost single-handedly saving the club he now finds himself out of a job.
“The situation is very unusual, but by letting myself go – along with other
members of staff – it will help secure the future of the club,” said Dilloway.
“These type of measures were necessary to stop Ebbw Vale slipping further into debt to the point that we were trading illegally.”
For owners Marcus and Paul Russell it might have been easier to walk away but the brothers believe that Ebbw Vale rugby club still has a huge part to play in the traditions of Welsh rugby.
“The valleys are very oppressed and the rugby team is perhaps the last source of pride for the people of Ebbw Vale,” said Paul Russell.
“We’ve invested a lot of money but we still believe that the club can
continue producing fine rugby players and that we are a hot bed for Welsh
talent.”