Ringfencing expected to take at least another year

PREMIERSHIP Rugby plans to prevent relegation this season look doomed.

At a summit meeting last week, Premiership Rugby’s 13 shareholders – the 12 current top-flight clubs, plus Championship leaders London Irish – resolved to seek ring-fencing at the earliest opportunity. However, The Rugby

Paper understands many issues remain unresolved and a lack of clarity over player welfare, season structure and the impact ring-fencing may have on TV viewership will make it virtually impossible to drive through any proposals for next season.

One Premiership insider told TRP: “Ring-fencing is by no means clear-cut because everyone recognises there are issues to resolve – and for many different reasons.

“There’s a recognition that if you ring-fence with, say, 13 clubs, you’re not only putting in two extra games, but two extra ‘meaningful’ games which are replacing Premiership Cup games, which at the moment are being used primarily as development matches.

“There’s a significant player welfare issue with people who lose a lot of players to England, like Saracens, concerned that there’ll be more overlaps with internationals, which will devalue the Premiership at a time when you want to value the product.

“There’s also a recognition that television companies would rather have promotion and relegation because it adds more exciting games to the schedule.

“There is absolutely no appetite for conferences and it does seem that in England the best way of making a league successful is with promotion and relegation, home and away fixtures and all the traditional elements of football – that tribalism is a powerful marketing tool.”

In order for ring-fencing to be implemented in time for next season, Premiership Rugby would need to persuade the Rugby Football Union, via Professional Game Board meetings in April, to table cast-iron proposals at the RFU’s full Council AGM in June.

However, our top-flight source said: “While there is a hardening of the mood towards ring-fencing from Premiership Rugby and the clubs, a lot of detail needs putting in place.

“Everybody wants to see more work on what the season would look like – what happens to the Premiership Cup, Premiership Shield, the salary cap and the number of players you might need. All those things have yet to be properly assessed.

“People want so see a mapped-out season. There’s been some financial modelling but no modelling of what a practical season would look like.

“That would have to be put in place and there also needs to be a full view on where the RFU sit on the issues.”

With time running short, our source added: “You’ve got to get it past the RFU Council and it’s very late to change the rules of any competition in June.

“It would be a difficult thing to achieve for next season, so at the earliest ring-fencing might be 2020/21.”