The board of the Southern Kings has voluntarily withdrawn the team from participation in any planned domestic rugby competitions in 2020.
The players and staff were informed of the decision following an urgent meeting of the board on Monday afternoon.
Southern Kings board chairman Andre Rademan said in a statement issued by SA Rugby that the decision was taken reluctantly in the face of hard, financial realities.
Rademan says they could have opted to field the Kings in the domestic competitions mooted by SA Rugby for the sport's post-lockdown resumption if they so wished.
He said, however, that this would have required additional loans to the Kings or extra investment from the shareholders to the tune of R6.5 million rand which would add to the organisation's existing substantial debt.
Rademan said that as there is also no contractual requirement for the Kings to resume short-term participation in the Guinness PRO14 competition, and as the Kings have no other commercial commitments to honour, the most prudent decision was to withdraw.
He said that with ongoing uncertainty about competition formats and travel restrictions into 2021, the board would now take time to reconsider its options and the on-going financial challenges it faced.
