Return of relegation is reason to cheer

NICK CAIN

The restoration of promotion and relegation, which this column has advocated non-stop since the RFU’s ring-fence moratorium in 2021, is cause for celebration. At the same time, it is also deeply concerning because it shows just how close English rugby came to being locked in a club franchise model that was squeezing the life out of the game.

The moratorium very nearly turned into a choke-hold, guaranteeing 10 clubs a place in a Premiership franchise league in perpetuity. If it had not been for the Championship clubs finally getting organised as a coherent body under chairman Simon Halliday, and battling for their rights – and survival – the attempt by the RFU administration and Premiership owners to turn it into a franchise zombie league would have been successful.

That it took 18 months of internecine strife between Championship representatives and their RFU/Premiership counterparts to break the gridlock on the eve of the contentious £264m PGP being given RFU Council approval, illustrates just how reluctant this RFU administration was to change the promotion-relegation status quo.

It is also unlikely that there would have been any movement unless the threat of Championship non-cooperation, and the relegation of all its clubs leading to a potential schism in the English game, had been invoked.

However, despite the minimum standards ground capacity concessions, there is no escaping that this is a compromise which will lead to further ructions. While it gives Championship clubs hope, and aspiration, it comes with precious little funding above the £150,000 p.a. they receive now. Instead, it leaves the Premiership with much of its cartel apparatus still intact, in the form of ‘P’ shares dictating that promoted Championship clubs face a £3m shortfall, while relegated Premiership clubs get parachute payments of a similar amount.

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