Nobody wants to help clubs like us say Ealing
EALING managing director Ben Ward admits he is “frustrated” by Premiership Rugby’s dismissive attitude towards the Championship and has called for an urgent rethink over how England’s top two professional leagues are run.
Premiership boss Mark McCafferty stirred a hornets’ nest by expressing his ‘concern’ were Ealing to be promoted at the end of this season, given their modest crowds and lack of a stadium that meets the top-flight criteria.
Ealing, who are backed by multi-millionaire Traildevelop finders owner Mike Gooley, maintain they have the stadium matter in hand, but Ward is more concerned that bigger issues over league structure are failing to be addressed. Ward, right, told The
Rugby Paper: “Mark McCafferty’s comments weren’t very helpful and the frustration we have around the whole Championship is there doesn’t seem to be anyone who wants to help us develop as a group of clubs.
“We’re left to do it all ourselves but you’ve still got Cornish Pirates with their stadium development, Coventry, who have massive plans for their ground, Yorkshire Carnegie with fantastic facilities and Doncaster are there as well.
“We’re obviously keen to at Ealing, but nobody ever wants to help you identify where you can put programmes in place.
“The RFU are keen on developing what the Championship has, but if I were Premiership Rugby I’d be looking at what we have and we need to work together to promote all the clubs. However, nobody ever sees the bigger picture.”
Ward believes competitive opportunities are being missed.
He added: “We had an opportunity with the British & Irish and AngloWelsh Cups disappearing to have a cross-Premiership/Championship competition which would have started developing links, but the Premiership didn’t want to know.
“Another frustration for us is watching the French leagues and seeing how the Top 14 and Pro D2 are run by the same organisation (LNR).
“There are no different agendas and a side coming up from Pro D2 actually gets a bigger budget than the other sides to help settle in.
“Here, if a side goes up and they’re not Premiership shareholders, their budget is considerably lower because they’re considered newbies.
“Ultimately, that’s what undid London Welsh because they ended up spending silly money on players to try and stay up.
“But we’ve got a group of strong, ambitious clubs below the Premiership who know what they’re doing and just need help.”
Ealing offer the greatest threat to London Irish’s chances of returning to the top-flight.
However, Ward admits: “Realistically, we’d come straight back down because our budget would be half what other Premiership clubs get.
“When people say there’s a case for ring-fencing there possibly is, but that’s because the leagues are run in a completely unfair way.”