Championship clubs fear loss of 300 jobs in RFU cuts

Second-tier teams fear loss of over 300 jobs Forming a breakaway league among proposals

Championship clubs last night promised to fight the Rugby Football Union’s decision to slash their funding by more than 40 per cent, which it is feared could result in more than 300 job losses.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that Cornish Pirates will propose imposing a £2.5million salary cap, which could have severe implications for Saracens, who will be relegated to the second tier this season. The English champions have admitted they are on course to be over the Premiership salary cap of £7million for this season. Reducing their wage bill by nearly two thirds would force them to offload nearly all their England internationals.

Other proposals being put forward include forming a breakaway league, reintroducing the play-off system, forcing relegated clubs to distribute some of their parachute payments and threats of legal action against the RFU.

“We are not just going to lie down and take it,” said Alistair Bow, the Nottingham chairman, who indicated he would back the salarycap proposal. “All teams would have to comply to it, including the relegated team, which would mean cutting their cloth accordingly.”

The proposal will be discussed at the next meeting of the Championship clubs committee, but would need to be approved by the RFU. That is as long as the Championship remains an RFU property, with Coventry and Cornish Pirates releasing a statement yesterday that proposed forming a breakaway league. “We are not going to be going away quietly,” the statement read. “The RFU is one funding option but we will now actively continue discussions with other potential funding partners.”

The most pressing concern was of the fate of players who are out of contract this summer. With funding levels dropping from £530,000 per club to £288,000 in the new 12-month deal, several clubs may be forced to go part-time and cancel their current full-time contracts.

Jon Sharp, the Coventry chairman, yesterday claimed to have received more than 100 telephone calls from worried players and coaches asking for a move. “It’s desperate,” Sharp said. “These are people with mortgages and families.”

Another chairman believes job losses will exceed 300, including players and support staff, which Sharp does not dispute.

Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive, presented the cuts as necessary to ensure the governing body receives the right return on investment from English rugby’s second tier. This was challenged by Sharp, who said: “I was a CEO of a large company for 30 years, so I am used to that sort of decision-making, but there are other factors that have to be taken into account.

“During the meeting, I asked what about the human cost and the number of people who are going to end up on the scrap-heap? One of the things that we are proud of is that we provide a pathway for players on the downward slide who have expended their playing lives in the Premiership. Bill Sweeney didn’t say anything. Apparently they are just collateral damage.”

Players in the Championship, outside the relegated Premiership team, are not represented by the Rugby Players’ Association. “It is still a massive concern,” Damian Hopley, the RPA chief executive, said. “We are frustrated that we cannot do more, but we will do what we can where we can to help.”

The RFU insists the cuts were a result of Championship clubs failing to deliver on a set of objectives defined at the last funding agreement in 2015. However, many chairmen and chief executives dispute this. “I don’t know the criteria they are referring to,” Bow said. “We have a criteria laid out in the participation agreement that we signed four years ago and you get paid accordingly to achieving those targets. Nottingham have never failed to meet one of those targets.”

Many clubs took issue with much of the information contained in the email announcing the cuts that was sent at 8am on Tuesday. The email contained references to funding for the British and Irish Cup, which was disbanded two years ago, as well as downplaying the role the Championship has played in developing England players.

As Dicky Evans, the Cornish Pirates owner, put it bluntly: “To say we are not producing players is total b------s.” England’s squad that faced Scotland last weekend contained 12 players who cut their teeth in the Championship. One of those number, tighthead prop Will Stuart, last night tweeted: “This is pure garbage for lads who put their bodies on the line for already laughable levels of player welfare.”

Bow believes the RFU will face a mutiny within the community game. “I think this cut and the way it was dealt with will mean they face something they have not seen before, a backlash beyond what they imagined,” he said.