In my opinion, ring-fencing the Premiership is only a matter of time, as the elite clubs keep looking to push it through with each new proposal more extreme than the previous one. When the idea was first mooted, the Premiership wanted to expand to 14 and then close the shop. now they want to keep it at 12 with London Irish paying the price for their own financial struggles, while Yorkshire Carnegie would be banned too. I have been against ring-fencing the league (and don’t get me wrong; I still am), but by ring fencing the Premiership it could provide a fantastic opportunity for the Championship which could go on to rival the Premiership one day as a parallel league. By ring fencing the Premiership, the Championship could become more competitive as this would remove the team relegated from the Premiership (currently Bristol) that runs away with the league by 20 points or so and whose wage budget is 10-20x higher than the next team. It’s been apparent for quite some time that the Premiership is purely driven by financial self-interest and has little concern for teams in the lower leagues. This can be seen in the Premiership’s most recent attempt to buy the Premiership shares off of London Irish in order to give the league full control as to who comes in. . The possible reforms The Premiership would stay at 12 with mega rich Bristol replacing paupers London Irish with the door being slammed shut. London Irish would then have to get used to life in the Championship for a significant amount of time. This of course would mean cutting salaries as they know they would be unable to go straight back up and it would bring them in line with some of the other teams financially. However, I believe that by the Championship and below getting cut adrift it would be an excellent opportunity for the RFU to reform it (possible expansion?) with different rules in terms of attracting players from across the globe in order to increase revenue streams for the Championship teams, which generally struggle with debt. For example, this may be through having ‘designated players’ which would make a select number of players within each team immune from the salary cap. These may include places such as Fiji, Samoa, Tongo and Namibia. The ‘designated player(s)’ as intended are also designed to raise the profile of the Championship once the inevitable ring-fencing happens, as a lot of the clubs rely on a number of foreign imports to make them competitive. I would suggest that a limit of 3-4 designated players would be acceptable and help set the Championship in a positive new direction. Furthermore, I would possibly suggest expanding the Championship to between 14-16 although this depends if there’s enough revenue to be evenly distributed. If it’s not expanded 12 teams would still be viable and instead the league could introduce a new cup competition (similar format to the football FA Cup) which involves teams from the Championship and below. This way it gives teams extra income as well as bringing the rugby community together, which is something that seems to be decreasing in rugby given the increasing gulf between the rich elite and the rest. Furthermore, this competition would allow teams the chance to play at the iconic Twickenham as I believe the final should be played here. By implementing these changes, I believe the Championship would flourish post ring-fencing and, in my view, would give the RFU the chance to get more involved in the lower leagues as their grip on the Premiership seems to be loosening further. A further (and minor) point in regards to the ring-fencing is that the Premiership is concentrated in roughly six areas of the country with two regions making up for half the teams. A more competitive and deeper league structure would provide an improved geographical spread that could support the wider growth of rugby as a good level is more accessible. However, I can't see the Premiership changing much geographically so there will continue to be an uneven spread of teams, thus outlining how Rugby Union continues to struggle in the North specifically. The Championship would look like this (going by the current bottom placed Premiership side * and the current top Division 1 side **): · Bedford Blues · Cornish Pirates · Coventry** · Doncaster Knights · Ealing Trailfinders · Hartpury College · Jersey Reds · London Irish* · London Scottish · Nottingham · Richmond · Yorkshire Carnegie With the possibility of adding: · Darlington Mowden Park · Esher · Plymouth Albion · Rotherham Titans Overall, I think the reform is damning indictment on the legacy that so far has failed to materialise from hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2015. It seems to me that not much progress regarding the league structure and professional rugby has been made ever since rugby went professional in the mid 1990’s. This is a cause for concern since the distribution of wealth is continuingly becoming even more uneven, so with what I have suggested I hope that the Championship (and below) can embrace the inevitable ring-fencing of the Premiership and flourish as a result.
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