Premiership planning for 22-match A-League

LEICESTER chief Simon Cohen says he would welcome plans to revamp the Premiership A-League by making it a full-blown second tier competition, with matches being played back-toback on the same day as first team matches.

This season’s expanded A-League programme will include ten regular season matches in an effort to provide extra game time for developing players, who up to now have tended to be loaned out to Championship or National League clubs. However, The Rugby

Paper understands proposals are to be tabled that would see the A-League adopt a full 22-match home and away programme from 2018-19, thus mirroring the Premiership and reducing the need for dual-registration.

That would impact Championship and National League sides who currently rely on dual-registration to bolster their squads, while they may suffer a double-whammy of losing their best young talent as Premiership sides beef up their rosters.

Confirming initial discussions have taken place, Cohen told The Rugby

Paper: “It’s certainly one of the proposals and we’d have no issue with that at all.

“We’ve always thought

that what you effectively need is a second team scenario that provides 22 matches played back-toback on the same day as the Premiership matches – the current format does not provide all the answers.

“You want developing players to play every week, but the new 10-12 game format doesn’t do that and it also makes it harder to loan players out; for us it’s fallen between two stools and we would welcome a full-on ALeague competition.”

Meanwhile, Cohen admits the declining value of sterling against the euro could hamper the ability of England’s clubs to attract star overseas signings.

As the pound continues to tumble amid rancorous Brexit negotiations, clubs face paying premiums of between £10,000 and £20,000 on each £100,000 spent on players’ wages in order to remain competitive with top French sides.

Should the pound continue to weaken, it may also have consequences in tempting more Englandqualified players to accept moves abroad.

Cohen said: “We’re not seeing it just yet because most of our current recruitment was done quite early, but agents weigh-up packages pretty carefully in advance and they look at the potential effects of changes in currency and taxation.

“Because of the current value of the pound, where we’re competing with the euro in France, it will definitely increase costs as things stand.”