When London Irish went bust in 2023 many thought that was the end of one of Premiership Rugby’s famous clubs. But businessman Daniel Loitz wants to buy the club.
What does the Bernadotte Dynasty of the Swedish royal family, a Kazakh steel works company, an Uzbek railway project, the Berlin Wall and the fall of the USSR have in common? The answer is the Loitz family.
While these projects, relationships and events are in some cases centuries old, the family name lives on through Daniel Loitz, who says he has invested some of the family fortune across a number of assets across the world.
His current focus, however, is not mega projects in Asia or the aftermath of the fall of communist regimes but, Loitz tells City A.M., London Irish.
The former Premiership rugby club went bust in 2023 having been under the ownership of Powerday’s Mick Crossan, but Loitz says he hopes to reform the club – and exploit the commercial advantages of their Hazlewood training facility, an erstwhile base for NFL teams visiting London – in the near future.
London Irish pathway
London Irish’s administrators have confirmed that they remain in talks with Loitz, who says he has also held discussions with creditors and the Rugby Football Union. And with plans for a new second tier that could see up to 16 teams, the opportunity for Irish to rise like a phoenix and be involved is plausible.
“I want to have professional rugby going but I want to create a pathway between the London Irish amateur club and the London Irish professional club, because if we don’t have that then this is out of touch. I say that as an outsider,” says Loitz.
“This is my analysis: in the last eight months I saw so many young, talented people who stopped with rugby because they didn’t get a chance. Rugby, in general, doesn’t have so many people like football or other sports.
“If you send away 80 talents [from the academy] who are working hard, I am not saying all 80 would have made it – I am not naive – maybe 15 or 20 could have helped the club and created an identity.
“For me rugby is something which I truly believe in. We are not American Football. It’s absurd that someone can come and buy a club in St Louis and take them to Los Angeles. You lose all your values with that.
“If we have the chance to go into the Championship and I need to pay off creditors, I am aware of that and I have the proposals on the table. I am happy to do that.”
The vision
Loitz isn’t dipping his toes into sport for the first time. While he encountered difficulty in a recent bid to buy struggling League One football club Reading, a former home to London Irish, the German owns six women’s football clubs – including Halifax in the United Kingdom.
His mother was a former goalkeeper and he says his investment in women’s football is from the heart rather than head. He is, then, well placed to enter rugby, a sport where every one of England’s top 10 teams made a loss according to their last accounts.
Especially so, given his insistence on limiting expensive overseas players – something London Irish didn’t exactly commit to previously.
“I have been told that the vision I have [for London Irish] is sustainable,” Loitz adds.
“I have proved all of my funding, I have everything in place and I understand that [major creditors] are in favour of me.
“In my opinion I made a good [offer], created a good vision. The idea at the moment would be that we rent out Hazelwood for two or three years and then I made an offer to buy Hazelwood and I am happy to have a conversation with the London Irish amateur club [about] creating a pathway and a community. That is important to me.
“I could start at the bottom of the rugby pyramid, but I want to be honest and say that it would be a very long way [back] and I couldn’t even make it profitable in 20 years.
“If I start in the championship, and I wait until the 2025-26 season, it gives us enough time to create a real pathway and create something which is great. That’s the most realistic thing to go for.”
Led by Loitz to silverware?
He speaks proudly of the Loitz family history, once key to the courts of the Swedish royal family and vast land owners, as well as a passion for community. And he is not the first to circle English rugby, with Saudi Arabian groups sounding out a number of clubs. Loitz’s final message, though, is for the fans.
“If [buying London Irish] means I need to pay off the creditors, I am happy to do that with my private investments, Hokulani Limited, out of respect and to earn the right to be back,” 30-year-old Loitz says.
“That is a big discussion in the rugby world which I respect 100 per cent. I don’t want to have a free pass. What the fans from London Irish need to understand is that if I pay off those creditors I will not chase silverware [or change] my whole identity and vision. And if I don’t pay off the creditors it is the same.
“I will not go for delusional things, I don’t want to do that. I want to create something which is sustainable and creates talent. That’s the most important thing for me.”
Whether Loitz can leverage the family dynasty to restore a proud club like London Irish remains to be seen. But given the financial instability within rugby at the moment, any outside interest is an encouraging sign for the sport.
