Worcester will return to professional rugby union next season, three years after going bust, the RFU announced on Thursday.

The Warriors are being allowed to return to a revamped second tier of English rugby provided they pay off the debts left by the previous owners, rather than being required to start again from the bottom of the club pyramid, as previously happened to the likes of London Welsh and Richmond.

Worcester, all 12 current Championship teams and a promoted National League One side — subject to that club meeting minimum operating standards — will comprise the new 14-club Tier 2 league, the division below England’s elite Premiership.

Warriors entered administration in September 2022 with debts of around £25 million ($33 million). They were one of three Premiership clubs to go bust during the 2022-23 season, along with Wasps and London Irish, but now have a new owner in Chris Holland and Junction 6 Limited.

Midlands club Worcester, who previously helped develop current England internationals like Fin Smith, Ollie Lawrence and Ted Hill, will continue to play at Sixways Stadium.

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They have plans to increase capacity to 12,750 and build a new 120-room hotel on site.

“We are sustainable and we have planned for the resilience of this for some time,” Holland told reporters at Sixways.

“It was a very detailed and challenging process. It was three months of going to the dentist, effectively. All through that, our sustainability and business plans were tested and retested.”

Tier 2 chairman Simon Gilham underlined Holland’s comments by saying: “We put them through a very rigorous – which, sometimes, might have felt unfair — process…We demanded conditions and did not allow them any wriggle room.”

There will be no promotion to the Premiership this season as Doncaster Knights were the only club to meet the minimum standards — which include financial stability and having a stadium with a capacity of at least 10,001 — but they are seventh in the table.

Ealing Trailfinders, 12 points clear at the top, failed to meet the requirements.

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