Wasps has announced that 167 players and members of staff have been made redundant as the club has gone into administration.

Wasps Holdings Limited has ceased trading with immediate effect with Andrew Sheridan and Raj Mittal, partners at specialist business advisory firm FRP, appointed as joint administrators today (October 17).

A statement from the club said "regrettably" the administrators had to make "all members of the playing squads and coaching staff" redundant.

A small number of employees have been kept on to support the wind down of the company and running the Coventry Building Society Area "which is unaffected by this administration and continues to trade as normal".

Andrew Sheridan, joint administrator, said: "This is a dark day for English rugby, and we know this will be devastating news for every Wasps player and member of staff, past players, sponsors, and their thousands of supporters throughout the world, and anyone who has ever been involved with this great club.

"Our immediate focus is on supporting those who have lost their jobs this morning. This will be an incredibly challenging time for every individual, and we will be assisting them in making claims to the redundancy payments service."

The news was broken to staff at meetings at the CBS Arena and the club's Henley-in-Arden training ground today.

Having announced last week that the club would be placed into administration "within days", Wasps were suspended indefinitely from the Premiership by the Rugby Football Union.

They will be relegated come the end of the season.

Wasps reportedly owe £2million to HMRC and £35million to bond holders.

As speculation over the club's financial position has grown over the past few weeks, offers for the CBS Arena have been reported including one from the NEC Group.

Mr Sheridan added: "The board and many others across the club have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to try and find a solution that would allow the club to move forward, and it is with great regret that there has been insufficient time to allow this to happen.

"However, we remain in ongoing discussions with interested parties and are confident that a deal will be secured that will allow Wasps to continue.

"We would like to thank the RFU and PRL for their support to date and we continue to engage closely with them as negotiations with interested parties continue.

"Of course, time remains of the essence, and we will be doing everything in our power to progress discussions with interested parties as quickly as possible, while fulfilling our statutory duties as administrators."

Nub News reported this morning that Wasps had also pulled plans to expand its Henley-in-Arden training ground this month.

Coventry City FC, who rent the stadium from Wasps, will continue to play their fixtures at the CBS Arena.