The Premiership clubs have moved to play down reports of a breakaway league and “a war” with the Rugby Football Union over ringfencing but relegation from the top flight remains a thorny issue for both parties.
It emerged on Sunday that last April the club owners discussed the possibility of an “unregulated competition” if the RFU does not agree to scrap promotion and relegation. It is a nuclear option and highly unlikely to materialise – not least because it would jeopardise the eight-year Professional Game Agreement (PGA) signed by the clubs and the RFU in 2016, which guarantees Premiership Rugby £30m a year and England access to their players.
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The clubs have long since been exploring ways to ringfence the top flight, however, and ultimately require the RFU’s approval to do so. Furthermore, some clubs, emboldened by the £230m investment from CVC, want to ringfence sooner rather than later but it is believed there is a degree of reluctance from the RFU to agree. Its stance may have softened in recent years – ironically when Premiership Rugby’s chairman, Ian Ritchie, was the RFU’s chief executive he was steadfastly against ringfencing – but the union does not want to be seen to be killing the aspirations of teams below the Premiership.
It is also considered the union’s most powerful bargaining chip with the Premiership clubs. In 2017 the RFU agreed to get rid of the Championship play-offs having been afforded more access to England players as part of the PGA. If the RFU agrees to get rid of promotion and relegation now, however, it has little left to bargain with in the future.
both Ritchie and the RFU confirmed no proposals have yet been made. Ritchie told the BBC: “Like any board, you would expect all boards to discuss issues like Premiership promotion and relegation, and we’ve been doing that for some time. To be clear, we’ve got an eight-year agreement with the RFU – we work very closely in partnership with them – and we’ve not put any proposals to them about this yet. And nor have we finalised our own, so I think what we need to do is consider this further. And I think it’s a bit precipitous to say that there’s a rift between us because we’ve not had the discussions yet.”
There may be some acceptance that ringfencing in the longer term is inevitable – the RFU’s interim chief executive, Nigel Melville, last month suggested a 16-team two-conference format – but the union does not want to be dictated to by the clubs. When last month it emerged some clubs wanted to introduce ringfencing as early as this season Melville’s response was pointed. “I think that’s called wishful thinking isn’t it? Suddenly people want something to happen now. Well no, that’s not how it works.”