An official statement explained: “The club recently made the decision to turn professional and has developed a three-year plan to reach the Guinness Premiership. However, investment in top quality players and experienced training and coaching staff has come at great personal cost to the principal investor and chairman, Kelvin Bryon.

“For London Welsh to progress towards promotion to the Premiership, the club will need to secure additional investment from either another individual or a consortium of investors.

“There are sufficient funds available for the club to continue to operate for one more month but without additional income, the club will be unable to continue to trade in its present form.

“This is likely to result in exclusion from the Championship and the British & Irish Cup by the RFU and the club will revert to playing local level rugby.”

London Welsh boast 177 Welsh internationals among their past players and 43 British and Irish Lions, including current president John Dawes.

Coventry went into administration at the start of 2008, but were able to complete the season as a new company and, with the help of a successful Telegraph-led public fund-raising appeal, met a number of RFU demands to continue playing in National Division One last season when they finished ninth to qualify for the Championship.

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