It was earlier reported that Zebre were pulling out of the newly-expanded Pro14, communicated via a statement published by the Italian Rugby Federation. The club have been in serious financial difficulty, and in January announced that they required €1 million to stay afloat. They had myriad on-field troubles, too, and finished bottom of last season's Pro12.
As a result, today the club has been dissolved, and has returned under the aegis of the Italian Rugby Federation.
The statement is below:
The Rugby Italian Federation has taken note of the communication received from the Company "Zebre Rugby Srl", in which the writer expressed his renunciation to participate in the Guinness PRO12 2017/18.
Deliberate the establishment of the " Zebre Rugby Club Company " to ensure the participation of two Italian teams in the competition in order to comply with the agreements in place with the Celtic Rugby Board, and determined to appoint the new director of the new company to Mr. Andrea Dalledonne and Mr. Diego Rivetti as the only Mayor, FIR leaders will meet on Monday 24 July in Parma - together with the new directors - members of the staff and players of the franchise to start the operating processes of "Zebre Rugby Club" and define as soon as possible Contracts with technical cadres, athletes and staff of the new Society.
The issues of securing contracts and insurance for players will be ratified at a meeting later today, with the Federation's head of media Andrea Cimbrico tweeting that the club will compete in next season's competition.
FIR has already constituted a new Club, named @ZebreRugby Club, that will take part in #PRO12. Nothing changes.
— Andrea Cimbrico (@acimbrico) July 24, 2017
This is similar to decisions made in Welsh rugby earlier this year, as the Welsh Rugby Union have taken control of Newport-Gwent Dragons, and Cardiff Blues.
