Champ clubs refuse to delay new deal
Furious Championship clubs have voted against proposals to push back the new Professional Game Agreement (PGA) by another year, to 2025-26.
Earlier this month the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) brought in two independent advisers, to work with the RFU and PRL on their plans to restructure the professional game in England through the PGA.
Former RFL CEO Ralph Rimmer, and UK Sport Board Member Chris Pilling, were appointed in a supporting role as the sport tries to plot a way through the post-pandemic landscape.
The current eight-year deal, worth over £200 million, was agreed in July 2016 and is therefore due to expire next year. But with the English game currently in the grips of a financial crisis, RFU/ PRL want a 12-month extension to get their house in order.
However, Championship clubs fear they could follow Worcester, Wasps and London Irish in going into administration if they are made to survive on just £150,000 central funding for another year as opposed to the £6.5million handout that Premiership clubs get.
The motion was given the thumbs down at Monday's meeting of the Championship clubs.
“We are being treated really badly as a group, continually. It is false promise after false promise and we are not conforming,” a Championship source said.
“Look at it from our position, we have been on £150,000 funding for two to three years and we're the only league in the world where funding hasn't been restored since Covid. We're fighting for our lives.
“We're not going to agree to move it to 2025/26 unless we are involved in the PGA. At the moment, they won't let us in. If they kick the can down the road for another year, I think Championship clubs will disappear.
“It's time we bared our teeth, we are fighting for survival and not rolling over.”
Another grievance centres around the new Premiership/Championship Cup, which has been introduced to help fill a gap in the calendar whilst the Rugby World Cup is on,
The pool stages will take place over five consecutive weekends from the weekends September 8-10 to October 6-8 with the semi-finals held over February 9-11 and the final over the weekend of March 15-17.
Initially heralded as a positive move for disenfranchised second-tier clubs, there is now a strong body of opinion within the Championship that feels the Cup is being organised solely at the Premiership clubs' behest.
“We're getting shafted. All the Premiership clubs have been sorting the groups out and picking the fixtures they want, we have had no input in that, and they are getting all the commercial revenue from the sponsorship and all the TV money and we should just be happy with two home games while they get given three,” our source revealed.
“If that doesn't sum up where our game is, and what our governing body is like, I don't know what does.”
Meanwhile, it is claimed that the RFU/ PRL vetoed moves by three Championship clubs – 2022/23 champions Jersey, runners-up Ealing and third-place Coventry – to submit an application to enter the European Challenge Cup despite the competition organisers, EPCR, inviting expressions of interest from any team in the world.
