Funds aren’t available to follow French route
SO now the answer to English rugby’s problems is – according to Richard Hill and Louis Grimoldby in last week’s Rugby Paper – to replicate the French tier 1 and 2 structure.
Both, from their considerable experience of the system in France come up with clear benefits of the way things work there, but neither addresses the fundamental question of how similarly huge amounts of funding can be mobilised in England to those clearly available in France.
We do not enjoy the system of municipal stadia, common across France and clearly clubs there have managed much more successfully than their English counterparts to exploit the ‘culture to sponsor sports teams’. Furthermore, they have collectively benefitted from a TV deal that has paid Rouen €1.6m p.a.
Even more impressively, the overall level of funding has allowed second tier clubs to operate under a strict rule that no more than 52 per cent of their budget can be spent on players, while, reportedly producing a higher level of rugby. Such a limit would, if achievable in this country, surely be a very sensible protection against the problems experienced at Yorkshire Carnegie recently and many other clubs before, that have overextended themselves purely to fund wage bills.
The challenge facing rugby in England is – as it has always been – to generate sufficient revenues to fund the demands of the game from Little Sodbury to Saracens. Premiership clubs and a few Championship clubs have managed to attract major external sponsors, yet still struggle to cover their huge playing cost bases and, singly or collectively, the Championship clubs in particular need to bring more to the table.
The RFU’s budget is dominated by the demands of the Premiership, which has extorted more than its pound of flesh in return for merely releasing England players outside the international game periods designated by World Rugby and, still, only Exeter have managed to make an operating profit. This clearly has to come under the microscope.
Jeff Probyn is optimistic in his Sunday article that the top clubs ‘will be accommodating’. I wish I could share his optimism, but we won’t know, until pressure is brought on them.
The RFU have to take a lead here to open discussions with PRL to establish clearly what scope exists – if any – for their central funding to be partially reallocated to help establish an effective, fulltime professional second tier.
I do not believe, though, that the funds available to the RFU, even with cooperation from the top tier, would be likely to allow them to fund the requirements of two such leagues and grassroots rugby as well, without significant new money being brought in from somewhere.
The clubs need to do their part, by bringing their own costs under control and by working more effectively to generate commercial funding. If, as I fear, the scope for such new money is limited, then we need, collectively, to recognize this and accept that a competitive second, fully professional tier is unaffordable. The only alternative would be to continue to neglect the increasingly pressing needs of community clubs and their volunteers for both financial and advisory support to the ultimate detriment of the whole game.
JOHN ALLANSON Bishop’s Stortford RFC