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The Lions responded on Thursday to rumours on the rugby grapevine a day earlier that bankruptcy loomed for the defending Absa Currie Cup champions at the end of the year.

Former Sport24 publisher/editor Tank Lanning wrote on his website www.frontrowgrunt.co.za that he had received a text from an unnamed source saying: “All Lions players told only money for salaries until end December. All looking for jobs.”

But the Lions responded via their official Twitter account @LionsRugbyUnion: “We are not bankrupt. We are not going down. The players are being paid. We are playing in the 2012 SR (Super Rugby) comp. All malicious rumours.”

In an earlier tweet, the Lions said: “There is no official comment and nor will there be to malicious rumours.”

Funding issues have raged in the vicinity of Ellis Park since the souring in the middle of the 2011 season of a R16 million investment into the union from billionaire Robert Gumede and partner Ivor Ichikowitz; they pulled out and claimed Lions bosses were “stuck in the past” and effectively operated the franchise like amateurs.