Ex-Worcester Warriors chief executive Jim O'Toole, head of one of two bidding consortiums for the now suspended Premiership club, says the ownership of the land at Sixways is key to any deal.

But much of the land around the ground now belongs to other companies owned by Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring.

"The land has to be part of it. Simple as that," O'Toole said.

He told BBC Hereford & Worcester: "It's all about who owns the land, and whether the administrator - in doing their due diligence and forensic accounting - finds out what exactly happens to the assets and the liabilities.

"That is going to be the absolute key to this. We can't run a rugby club without a pitch, a back car park and the fanzone.

"Not only for the operation of the business but for the longer-term and bigger picture commercial development that will fund the club on a more sustainable footing."

Accusation of 'asset stripping' false, said owners

Whittingham and Goldring said in a previous club statement: "It's absolutely not true the stadium and land were recently taken out of the club. It has been separate for our entire ownership of the club.

"The accusation that we have been 'asset stripping' is completely false. Everything we have been doing is to make the group more stable."

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport agreed to the request of the club's directors to place Worcester into administration on Monday, within two hours of their suspension being confirmed by the Rugby Football Union.

"We are now completely in the hands of the administrator," O'Toole said.

"Our job now is to sell our vision and plan for the long-term stability of the club to that administrator, and persuade them that we're the best option.

"But we needed to have an end to the quite shambolic situation where the staff were - in effect - putting matches on as a result of a mutiny.

"In 30 years in sport I've never seen anything like it," added the former London Irish chief executive.

Worcester MP Robin Walker called for the club to be put in administration last week and remains concerned that it is just WRFC Trading Limited that is affected - and not any of the Warriors' owners other companies.

"What's vital now is that the administrators do their job," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "Work out exactly what has happened and where the money is and make sure as well that the assets of the club, including the land around it, can be kept together.

"What the administrators can do is that they can follow the money, the use of proceeds from the Sport England loan - they can look at any transactions over the last few years.

"It's very clear that part of an administrator's role is, if they feel that there's a transaction which is to the detriment of the creditors, and the people who the club owes money to, they can undo that.

"I am assured - and speaking to ministers about this - that they are aware of the need to have their lawyers and accountants look at this very carefully."

The club, who have been owned by Whittingham and Goldring since December 2018, still face a winding-up petition from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, who are owed over £6m, plus a long list of other creditors.

How quickly might Warriors come back?

Premiership chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor says that sorting new owners as quickly as possible will be a key factor to whether they will be allowed to carry on this season.

"They still have time to rescue the club through the administration process," he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast. "There is a credible buyer, or a couple of interested parties out there, who support the administration process. But that will have to happen fairly soon."

Having won their final game before administration against Newcastle on Saturday, this weekend's Premiership trip to Gloucester has been called off - and their next scheduled match at Sixways after that is against Harlequins on 8 October.

They then have a scheduled bye week - and a more realistic date to target for any return to action might be the Premiership away game at Bristol on 22 October.

"There hasn't been a deadline set on how quickly they could re-enter into the league," Massie-Taylor added. "But one of the other things to take into the account is the RFU's regulations are that once you move into administration, or have an insolvency event, unless you can prove that this is a no-fault situation due to Covid, then you would be relegated in the following season and therefore in the Championship.

"The best case scenario is that they are able to find a buyer, and are able to prove no-fault so would therefore play the remainder of the season and continue.

"The worst case scenario is they fail to find a buyer and go into insolvency and start again.

"There are some things that are quite clear in the regulations, then other things where judgment calls need to be made.

"If Worcester are out of the league for a certain period of time you start to really question the integrity of them re-entering the competition at a much later date. And if they were to exit the league we would like as much time as possible to reschedule fixtures and everything else.

"It gets more complicated the more weeks, bye weeks, you have in the season."