Ring-fence move must be rejected says Baron
FRANCIS Baron, the chief executive of the RFU when England won the 2003 World Cup, has urged the RFU Council to reject any proposal by the Board to suspend promotion and relegation.
Baron's intervention comes ahead of a widely anticipated RFU Board proposal for the Council to vote on a game-changing three/four-year moratorium on promotionrelegation when it meets before the AGM on Friday, June 11.
Baron used his casting vote in 2003 to maintain promotion-relegation rather than support a PRL (Premiership) motion for its removal – and he is adamant that none of the arguments that were made then have changed, or become any more persuasive.
He calls on the 65- member Council to exercise the utmost scrutiny. “It must establish what new evidence the Board has put forward that requires a change in a long-established RFU policy,” he said yesterday.
“Why must we ringfence when it is not the RFU's role to provide clubs at any level with ‘investor protection'? Neither the Board nor the Premiership can use Covid as a rationale because the effects of the pandemic will recede, and are not in any case a relevant argument for handing over the Premiership to a group of 13 clubs for a substantial period.”
Baron adds: “The Council must ask the Board how removing promotion-relegation will benefit the growth and development of the wider game? The Premiership glaringly failed to provide this in 2003.”
He continues: “What are the valid arguments? For instance, the evidence does not support the so-called ‘yo-yo' effect between the Premiership and the Championship. In the 17 seasons since 2003 no fewer than ten different clubs have been relegated – Bristol (twice), Leeds (three), Harlequins, London Irish (twice), London Welsh (twice), Newcastle (twice), Northampton, Rotherham, Saracens, and Worcester (twice).
“If the ring-fence had been introduced in 2004, as the Premiership wanted, then both Bristol, currently top of the league, and Exeter, the reigning champions, would have been ‘locked-out' – while Leeds and Rotherham would have been ‘lockedin'.”
He lists other uncomfortable truths: “PRL argued in 2003 that with promotion-relegation raising finance would be ‘virtually impossible'.
Yet, since 2003 new owners and investors have undertaken significant investment in stadium facilities at Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Newcastle, Northampton, Sale, Wasps, and Worcester.
Baron says: “In my time, Sky and other broadcasters felt that promotion-relegation added value to rights by creating interest at both ends of the table, and recently BT made it clear that they would reduce their valuation if it was removed.”
Baron said that the Council should question the Board about any provision in the Professional Game Agreement (PGA) for the removal of promotion-relegation, and ask if PRL has offered to reduce the RFU's payments in exchange for ring-fencing.
He added: “It should find out why RFU member clubs have not been consulted at an AGM before such a momentous decision, and also how many Championship clubs support the removal of promotion and relegation – which historically required a two-thirds majority vote.”
By NICK CAIN
