I’m still supporter of relegation - Diamond
NEWCASTLE may be adrift at the bottom of the Premiership but Steve Diamond remains an advocate for promotion and relegation.
The Falcons will be in the top flight next season because only one Championship club met the entry criteria for the top flight – Doncaster, who will finish among the also-rans.
“One of the biggest hurdles is the criteria, but you need to have minimum standards in the governance of any sport,” said Diamond, the consultant rugby director at Newcastle who earlier this year advised the second tier clubs and the RFU during talks over revamping the Championship.
“I believe in promotion and relegation, and not many would say that in my position. It brings jeopardy and that means you operate at a different level because of the motivation it brings. I am still on honeymoon at Newcastle because we cannot go down.
“If there are clubs who have the ambition of being promoted, and I would guess there are half-a-dozen of them, they should be able to if they meet the criteria.
“The sensible people in the Championship, which is most of them, appreciate the losses being accumulated by Premiership clubs, but you either talk or do. Sale’s owners have invested and good on them. Bath, Harlequins and Saracens all have stable backers and if these guys had not put loads of money into the game, I do not know where the sport would be.”
The Championship clubs are opposed to three clubs who collapsed last year, Worcester, Wasps and London Irish, being fast-tracked into the second tier should they reform and show they have the necessary financial backing, but Diamond disagrees.
“The first thing the three have to do, if they can be given lifeblood, is pay their rugby creditors,” he said. “That is not a legal obligation but the RFU has regulations that state that and everyone signs up to it.
“The creditors are staff, suppliers, agents and player image rights contracts. Fortunes have been lost at all of these clubs. There are people at Worcester who didn’t earn a lot of money, like chefs and cleaners, and weren’t paid for three or four months.
“I believe the three would add to the Championship, which could be expanded to 16 teams, because they are big brands, but they would need to pay their rugby creditors and have a financial plan, unlike the one in the Premiership which is to lose millions of pounds a year.”
Diamond was Worcester’s director of rugby when the club collapsed after being unable to pay a seven-figure tax bill. He formed a consortium to take over the Warriors, but the administrators went for a rival which was last month itself placed in administration.
“It was an unpleasant experience, but I do not feel bitter,” said Diamond. “It was a lost opportunity for the club and for the city. We had investors willing to support the whole infrastructure of the area and we agreed to pay the rugby creditors.
“The administrators opted for others who were unable to source the funding. They are paid to get the job done, not be liked or continue the history and tradition of a club. They look at it as bricks and mortar and this is what we want for it as well as our fee. It was the one that got away.”
Diamond would not be at Newcastle but for Worcester’s demise and he said he was in it for the long haul at Kingston Park, talking about where he hoped the Falcons would be in three years. On Friday night they were beaten by Bath, who have spent time at the bottom of the table this decade but are looking up under Johann van Graan.
“The team I build at Newcastle will be vastly different to Bath because of resources as well as the mentality and work ethic I need here,” said Diamond. “If they are given the means, a good coach should get a team away from the bottom of this league.
“We are rebooting everything from the academy to the medical side. In three years, I hope we are a respected team in the Premiership and Europe. Everybody is getting to know what their job is and we need accountability to achieve results.”