It’s reached that time again where the Premiership are debating whether to put up a blockade and cut themselves adrift from the rest of the rugby pyramid. This discussion seems to continue to resurface at any given opportunity by the Premiership elite in order to shore up their finances and cut off the danger of ever being relegated…ever again. The reason I think it will be a disaster for the whole game is that while some teams in the Premiership will become stronger, others will still be fighting it out at the bottom of the league, while the rest of the teams in English rugby will be forced to live off scraps. The Premiership is talking about restructuring the league, so the it will become a closed shop but then open the doors every 3-4 season’s (so they say) and may allow another team up. The problem with this is that the team who comes up (if they are allowed) is that they will be at a major disadvantage compared to everyone else in the Premiership. They will have a much weaker squad as well as hugely reduced revenue and budget after missing out on the millions received by the other teams over this period for being in the Premiership. This new policy isn’t too dissimilar to that of a nightclub’s policy on trainers, although they may let you in if they like your brand or colour of trainer. It’s elitism at its finest. I do however agree with the Premiership that the league needs restructuring, in fact the whole English league structure needs reform as on reflection the Championship hasn’t worked out either. All clubs bar Bedford and Richmond (two clubs who don’t want promotion anyway) operate at a loss, thus outlining how ill-thought-out the whole thing is. Most seasons promotion is a foregone conclusion with the recently relegated Premiership side going straight back up 20-30 points clear of 2nd place. Other teams are merely actors in a play just to make up the numbers, some invest a decent amount in their team to try and achieve the unthinkable, while the rest struggle at the bottom with little investment in their team and the club infrastructure as a whole. So, what should happen? In my own view the Premiership should copy what France do with their Top 14 and Pro D2 in terms of having a 14-team league with a two up, two down system which would increase the excitement of the Premiership. If they did decide on this I would predict that TV deals would increase given that the competitive nature of the league would have improved. Further evidence shows that this may well be the case as a TV rights deal signed in 2014 with Canal+ saw the Top 14 receive £60 million (£4.2 million per team/£16-17 million over 4 years) a year compared with the Premiership deal with BT Sport for £152 million over 4 years, equating to £38 million or just £3 million per team. This illustrates the huge disparity between the two leagues and the difference between a fluent, unpredictable, open shop and a rigid, predictable open shop. If the Premiership increased to 14 it could also help increase the popularity of Rugby Union throughout the country as it is currently mainly exists down South with hardly any presence of professional rugby in the North. This would be due to there being more chance of other teams (from the North) achieving promotion, meaning the chance of engaging more people with the sport and growing their subsequent fanbases knowing that promotion could be realistic possibility rather than an unrealistic pipe dream. These are some of the many reasons why I have been passionately arguing for the expansion of the Premiership for many years and feel this is something that needs to be done in order to build on the 2015 World Cup legacy. I believe this would take club rugby within England to the next level with added excitement and more competition amongst teams, while the Championship could reform with teams vying for promotion and teams with no interest of promotion. In return, the Premiership could agree to a FA Cup style competition featuring Championship and lower league sides which would help to distribute much needed money further down the pyramid as well as a chance of playing one of the big teams. With the introduction of this it would of course mean scrapping both the Anglo-Welsh Cup (Premiership) and the Anglo-Irish Cup (Championship) to avoid an increased number of matches. Obviously, all of these changes would be too ambitious for the Premiership who prefer the status-quo and do not expect any to happen. No doubt we will be revisiting this issue again in the not too distant future and will keep doing so until the Premiership flex their muscles and threaten to remove some incentives currently in place for the Championship sides. If the Premiership get their way of a closed shop I fear it could be the end of professional rugby below the top flight as clubs would not be able to sustain losses from declining gates as fans would have little interest in attending games in a league where nothing can be achieved coupled with the declining standard of rugby as players would be put of joining sides where there’s nothing to play for.
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