It’s time to get real and ring-fence Premiership – Bentley
PLYMOUTH Albion commercial manager Chris Bentley has launched an impassioned plea for the RFU to face reality, stop dithering and rubber-stamp Premiership ring-fencing to give lower league clubs their game back.
Bentley, a vastly experienced rugby man who as a lock forward played at all levels of the game for New Brighton, Orrell, Biarritz, Exeter, Tasman Makos and Edinburgh, claims topflight clubs have sailed away into the distance and must now be cut adrift.
He believes vast sums of money are being wasted chasing unrealistic dreams and that rugby below the Premiership would be better served by rebranding itself as a heartland competition where players on part-time contracts can develop careers outside of the game, while pursuing their own levels of excellence.
Bentley, a member of the Exeter squad that won promotion a decade ago before spending six years on the Chiefs’ commercial team, told TRP: “Truth is, as soon as Exeter went up you had ring-fencing by design and I remember the hoops we had to jump through, that clubs already in the Premiership didn’t have to comply with.
“For example, we had a purpose-built new stadium at Sandy Park but still had to widen changing room doors while Bath got away with totally substandard facilities.
“Ring-fencing, by the good old boys resplendent in blazers and ties, has been there in all but name so what the RFU need to do now is rubber-stamp it so that the Championship can finally understand what it is.
“When you’ve got Premiership clubs with millions being paid in salaries and clubs in the tier below are getting £400,000 in central funding and are expected to run a team that can cost ten times that to compete for a place in the Premiership, it’s bonkers.”
Bentley, 41, added: “We all need to get real and see that after 25 years of professional rugby, the elite tier is still figuring out where it’s going and how it’s going to work sustainably.
“All the clubs are losing money and we can’t keep going like this because we don’t have anywhere near the fervent support soccer enjoys – at any level.
“We should ring-fence the top-flight and rebrand the Championship as a heartland competition, with no shortage of effort and endeavour but heading the community game getting back to real rugby.
“The problem in the top tier now is they’re no longer rugby clubs; they’re businesses. While the #rugbyfamily is a lovely sentiment, that’s all it is – a sentiment. At the highest level players are commodities to be used – and if your commodity doesn’t work anymore you get rid and get a new one.
“The challenge we have now is to juxtapose the sport of Rugby Union with elite team business, but we’re failing badly and something has to change.”
Bentley’s vision would see Championship and National League clubs become genuine community hubs where the accent is on high quality competitive rugby with enjoyment rather than win-at-all-costs being the prime objective.
Having been part of the Orrell side that challenged Worcester for a place in the Premiership in 2004 but ended up going bust when benefactor Dave Whelan withdrew, he believes the demise of Orrell, West Hartlepool, Rotherham, London Welsh and Leeds should be heeded.
He explained: “Clubs from the Championship down need to take a view that the Premiership is a ship that’s now sailed. Aside from Ealing and possibly the Cornish Pirates, most of the Championship clubs have already accepted that and cut their cloth accordingly.
“There needs to be a proper moratorium to try and establish the Championship as a league in its own right and say, ‘this is the pinnacle of rugby below the elite’.
“If clubs still have a genuine aspiration to move up, the Premiership must accept them for a period of time to prove their value, but aside from that the Championship and National Leagues can coexist perfectly well and become a beacon for real rugby clubs.
“At the same time, if you rediscovered the benefits of county rugby and restored an element of divisional rugby that players could aspire to and take pride from representing, that to me would be a better way of doing things and far more cost-effective.”
Bentley believes the RFU have lost sight of their role as guardian to the 1,600 clubs below the elite.
“Just maybe Will Carling had a point with his infamous 57 men quote!” says Bentley. “When you can pay the CEO of the RFU more than you’re paying a Championship club for the whole year, as we are now, something’s got to be wrong.
“They have a lounge at Twickenham called the Spirit of Rugby, but there are clubs asking for support from the centre and it isn’t forthcoming and doesn’t look likely to be – all the money appears aimed at England and the Premiership. The rest of the game needs to take a step back and rediscover what it’s really about.
“I’m a rugby man who played in the second tier as well as in the Premiership and I’ve worked on the commercial side so I think I know the game and it’s frustrating to see how it’s going.
“A huge debate is needed about ring-fencing and having spoken to people at many heartland clubs, they desperately need clarity.”