Top-flight may pay to end tier two play-offs
BRISTOL chairman Chris Booy is urging other Premiership clubs to support proposals to compensate tier two sides for agreeing to revert to a first-past-thepost system.
Top flight clubs will decide on December 13 whether to accede to requests from Championship clubs for compensation in excess of £1m in return for scrapping the controversial play-off system which has held Bristol back for seven years. Booy told The Rugby
Paper: “The Premiership clubs are quite clear that we believe the play-off system in the Championship is unfair and we’re keen to get rid of it. There is a proposal that will go before our board and I, for one, will support it.
“I can’t call what other clubs will do but if the numbers are sensible, bearing in mind the Premiership has been contributing £1m to
the Championship historically, then it is something the Premiership clubs must seriously consider.”
Booy explained: “There’s no question that the promoted club is prejudiced on two counts: firstly, you can’t get the players you want in January and February, when ordinarily there’d be an expectation of going up; then, when you do eventually get promoted at the end of May, it’s too late and the best players are contracted.
“You immediately become favourites for relegation so you just compound the problem. It’s unfair competition and it simply has to stop.”
Regardless of the outcome of Premiership Rugby’s meeting and subsequent negotiations with the RFU and Championship clubs, this season’s tier two play-offs will remain, leaving pacesetters London Irish to face the same issues as Bristol.
Booy warned: “London Irish will win the league comfortably but then they face the vagaries of the play-offs so anything can happen. Refereeing decisions, the weather and injuries all come into it so there are no guarantees.
“Their recruitment plans will be hindered because players don’t want to play in the Championship, nor do they want that risk. They come, see all your facilities and think it’s wonderful, but then they say they’ll talk to you in a year or two.”
While Bristol’s position remains precarious, Booy insists he and billionaire owner Steve Lansdown are committed to taking the club to the top.
Booy, who expects to announce a new coaching structure this week, added: “We don’t expect to be relegated but we have to accept it could happen, but the coaches we have been talking to all understand our long-term vision.
“Steve and I are fully committed to making Bristol one of the top sides in Europe. If the worst happens, we’ll build and move on.”