THE Atlas consortium group are now in a race against time to complete the sale of Worcester Warriors.

Administrators Begbies Traynor have published their progress report, detailing information about their work since they were appointed back in September 2022.

And in that report it states: “The terms of the sale agreement require Atlas to complete the transaction by May 2 2023”, which gives Atlas seven days from Tuesday (April 25) to get the deal done.

The 27-page document confirms that Atlas were appointed on February 1 2023 when they paid an exclusivity fee of £500,000 as a non-refundable deposit, which triggered the start of the 90-day completion period.

Since then, Atlas have withdrawn their application to compete in next season’s Championship (2023/24) competition due to not being able to agree terms with the RFU over their return.

As a result, they revealed their plans to bring local side Stourbridge to Sixways to play under the name of Worcester Warriors in the Midlands 1 division (level 5) from next season onwards, as well as bringing former Premiership club Wasps to the stadium as tenants.

The news surrounding Wasps remains unconfirmed and recent reports state they themselves are running out of time to compete in the Championship next season.

The RFU said only last month that Worcester Warriors would have to start from level 10 if they wanted to come back into the league system, not level 5 that Atlas wanted.

Director Jim O’Toole responded to that news by saying he saw “no reason” why the Warriors would have to drop down to that level and that he was confident they would return at level 5.

But now, with only a week to go until the deadline, there remains question marks over whether Atlas can get the deal done in time.

There is no reference in the report as to what will happen if that deadline is not met but the wording in the report said: “Completion is due on or prior to May 22, which might suggest potential flexibility on that date.

The Worcester News had understood that any time frame on the completion was potentially moveable and that extensions could be applied.