Proposal to expand and ring-fence Aviva Premiership with majority of top flight in favour of radical shake-up
England’s leading clubs are proposing a radical plan to expand the Premiership for the start of the 2016-17 season and then scrap promotion and relegation – which would be the biggest overhaul of club rugby since the game went professional.
It is understood that the proposal is to increase the top flight from 12 to 14 teams by a meritocratic process before dispensing with promotion and relegation, which have been a bedrock of English rugby since leagues were introduced in 1987.
The fine details of how the new league structure would come into existence and how the new fixture schedules might work have yet to be ironed out. But it is understood that the concept has the support of the majority of the Premiership clubs following a meeting of owners and shareholders on Monday.
The full support of the 14 clubs who own Premiership shares – which includes Championship sides Bristol, Worcester and Yorkshire Carnegie – would be required before the plan could be agreed as policy. It would then have to be put before the Rugby Football Union for approval.
“There is real momentum behind this,” one club source said. “This can be a watershed moment for the professional game. We are still at the early stages and there are a lot of hurdles to overcome, but if it comes off this would provide the platform for the top flight of English rugby to move to the next level. This is a now-or-never moment.”
It is understood that the proposal was first raised collectively by four clubs at a meeting of club owners and shareholders on Feb 4.
It is thought that the plan’s supporters are keen for it to form a central plank of the negotiations with the RFU that are under way over the next long-term “heads of agreement” with the clubs over the release of England players.
Under the existing agreement, which expires next year, relegation from the top flight is protected. There is a sense, however, that there is an element within the club game that has been emboldened by the success in forcing the overhaul of the European competitions last season and now wants to do the same for the domestic game.
The majority of Premiership clubs are still losing considerable amounts of money each season and the proponents of ring-fencing argue that it would allow clubs to secure their long-term financial future as well as to invest in facilities and academies to develop more English-qualified players.
The Premiership’s lucrative television deal with BT Sport is due to expire at the end of the 2016-17 season and there is a feeling that a new structure would enable Premiership Rugby to increase the value of its rights.
The uncompetitiveness of London Welsh in the Premiership this season – the Exiles have lost all 15 of their league games and have just one point – appears also to have convinced those backing the plan that the gulf with the Championship is now too wide for promotion and relegation be guaranteed to infuse the top flight with fresh competition.
London Welsh, however, are already threatening legal action against what they regard as an unfair funding system for teams who are promoted to the Premiership.
London Welsh received £1.5 million for this season from the central pot, while the more established Aviva Premiership clubs took £4 million each. Bleddyn Phillips, the London Welsh chairman, claimed last month that the leading clubs had created a “cabal”.
Bristol and Worcester, who are battling it out for the promotion to the Premiership next season, are seen as two clubs with the infrastructure, facilities and finance to return to the top flight and to be competitive forces there.
Neither Premiership Rugby nor the RFU were prepared to comment on Thursday night but the principle of promotion and regulation is part of RFU regulations and changes can be made only by a vote by the governing body’s council, which in the past has been a strong advocate of retaining it.
The issue was last raised properly in 2010, when the RFU said that it would block any plans to expand the Premiership from 12 to 14 clubs after Premier Rugby had said that the move was a possibility in “two or three years”.
After the sport went professional in 1995 the top division was rebranded the Premiership for the 1997-98 season. The top flight had as few as 10 clubs in the mid-1990s, although in the 1998-99 season there were 14. The number has stayed steady at 12 since 1999, although the issue of ring-fencing has continued to bubble away under the surface ever since.
“The gulf between the leagues is now too big for it to be at the whim of the Championship’s play-off structure,” another club source said.
The response of the Championship clubs, who have potentially most to lose from a ring-fenced top flight, is now likely to be critical to the success of the plan, if it is signed off by Premiership Rugby.
Geoff Irvine, the chairman of the Championship, said: “We understand that there is a move afoot within Premiership Rugby to go to 14 clubs and either ring-fence or have a play-off. The Championship would be very interested in hearing the detail of these discussions and hope at some point that we will be consulted.”
(Source: Daily Telegraph)
