Five-year moratorium is the sensible option now
It’s time for Premiership Rugby to stop messing about and announce an end to relegation. It’s inevitable that this will happen, as the logic in favour of it is overwhelming, so why dither and delay? I’d be astonished if some clubs hadn’t put conditions in place as part of supporting the CVC deal – it needed to be unanimous – and an end to relegation would have been top of the list. As for that money – it came on the back of the Premiership clubs’ success, and I see no argument for running the risk of sharing it with anyone else!
For years I was a supporter of promotion and relegation, and in a perfect world it would work beautifully, with the twelfth club dropping down to a vibrant and competitive second tier, and the promoted club capable of establishing themselves in the Premiership. However, what’s good in theory is sometimes a joke in practice, and that, I’m afraid, is where we are today.
I wouldn’t make this a forever decision, but there should be a five-year moratorium, with a clearlydefined review process at the end. At that point if there’s a club in the Championship that have a chance of making it in the big time – and I mean demonstrably have a chance, rather than an owner mouthing off about ambition – then they should play off against the weakest Premiership side over two legs, home and away.
The weakest top-tier side wouldn’t necessarily be the one that finished bottom in year five, but the one that have shown themselves to be a struggler over the term of the contract.
Alternatively, if there is a tier two side genuinely worthy of a Premiership place, the owners have the option of expanding the league and letting them in.
If you look at the Championship, London Irish apart, can anyone show me a club that could, or would want to, make it at Premiership level at any time in the next few years?
During the week the chairman of Nottingham issued a statement that was very bullish in support of continuing with promotion, but admitting that it isn’t part of their shortterm plan. It’s great that Nottingham are showing ambition, but they’re sixth in the league, a long way behind London Irish, and I cannot imagine them getting promoted in the foreseeable future.
If by some stroke of luck they did, it’s a pound to a penny they’d go straight back down, possibly having been fatally wounded in the process. However, if they could get there by 2024-25, my suggested moratorium would allow them to have a chance of going up.
My problem is that Championship owners have talked a good game for many years but sadly it has been without much substance, and in most cases the crowds their clubs attract are derisory. Playing in front of fewer than 1,000 fans is the reality, not some warm words, or even a contract, saying they could play at a football stadium at some undetermined date in the future.
The Champions Cup pool games show the challenges English clubs face to reach the highest European level. The Celts can wrap their players in cotton wool, bringing them out rested for the games that matter most to them – and that’s not the PRO14!
Scrapping relegation would allow the English clubs to better manage their resources, and to give their players a few weeks rest. We also need to expand Premiership squads – there are good players in our second tier who are currently being denied the opportunity to prove themselves at a higher level. A few extra players in each squad, funded by a small increase in the salary cap, would likely reduce injuries, allow for rest periods, and suit Eddie Jones. We may even go back to the glory days when several English sides were in the Champions Cup knock-out stages.
The calls to announce the end of relegation for this season seem daft to me – the rules that were in place last September need to be sacrosanct – but we should announce now that it will disappear straight after that. Yes, that means a club will fall through the trapdoor in May, but if they can’t come straight back up then they’re not worthy of a place in the Premiership.
The argument that removing relegation will lead to meaningless games doesn’t hold water for me. There will probably be around eight teams in the running for a top six spot for most of the season, and the formula for defining the weakest team over the five-year period should keep the others honest.
Instead of sharing the television rights money equally among the sides, share it out on a merit basis – that would really put skin in the game. Nothing motivates the owners as much as money does!