English rugby shake-up includes new £12m television deal for remodelled Championship
Plans for a radical shake up of the English Championship, which includes controversially ring-fencing the Gallagher Premiership for at least four years, includes a television deal potentially worth up to £12m a year split into five packages. RugbyPass has seen a copy of the 76-page plan for the second tier of English rugby put together by Ed Griffiths, the former Saracens chief executive, which has been presented to the Rugby Football Union and is now with the Premiership clubs, leading universities and potential broadcasting and sponsorship partners.
While the newly styled “The English Championship” would start in 2021-22 and has projected television revenue worth only a quarter of the current Premiership deal, the proposal is adamant a figure of between £10m and £12m would be possible to generate once the league is established and could be generated from outlets, including sports streaming companies and YouTube, and would feature Thursday and Friday fixtures.
The most extensive shake-up of the sport since rugby went professional is expected to be put before the 11 Championship clubs – relegated Saracens are not included – in its final draft by the end of August with an estimated running cost of £15.6m in its first year.
This will come from significant investment from both the RFU and Premiership Rugby – recognising ring-fencing from 2021 to 2025 – on top of broadcasting and sponsorship revenues. The Championship will be split into two conferences of six teams, designated North and South, with at least 14 home matches in the various competitions.
Within two years the Championship will expand to 16 teams with a women’s championship also included in the proposals.
Funding the Championship has become even tougher thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with the RFU facing losses of up to £100m and the Premiership clubs also struggling due to the lockdown. Even before the current financial crisis the RFU had announced it would reduce central funding for the Championship from £530,000 to £288,000 per club next season in a package of cuts totalling £3million.
In the face of this financial body blow, Griffiths was tasked with delivering a new vision for the Championship. His plan is designed to achieve that by turning the league into a nursery, producing outstanding young English talent that is then drip-fed into the Premiership via an annual American-style draft system.
The young players will emerge from six regional centres based across the country and linked to two clubs in a remodelled Championship. This system would replace the current 13 academies based on the Premiership clubs with the RFU funding diverted to the six new centres.
The proposal states that: “The RFU will cease providing a fixed subsidy to a generally failing system, and instead be asked to support a significantly improved system that enhances the game, delivers a clear return on investment and offers measurable success.”
Under the draft, 60 players would take part from the regional hubs with the worst performing Premiership club having first pick of players, who will be offered in four bands.
A player signed from the first pick will be given an annual salary of £90,000 for three years at his Premiership club with the fourth round picks collecting £50,000 a year over the same period. Young players would not be allowed to join a top-flight club straight from school, having to spend at least one year at an academy with the system controlled by the RFU.
The Premiership clubs will be asked to draft a minimum of 48 players each December and “to respect regulations that prevent any Premiership club from contracting any young English player from anywhere except the TEC Draft.”
Done deal. ?https://t.co/m8FKjjgoFG
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 31, 2020
Championship clubs would operate a minimum wage structure with no less than £600,000 in the pot in 2020-21 for a 35-man squad. Twelve of those players will be from the academies and their salaries not included in the £600,000, leaving that figure to be split between 23 players giving a salary of £22,000 each. This will be supplemented by outside employment with measures in place to ensure “phantom” jobs are not created to boost salaries.
Critically, only 10 players in a squad will be over the age of 24 emphasising the Championship’s position as the focal point for young English rugby talent. Players will be contracted to the league with clubs acting as third parties.
Coaches and referees are also key components of the plans, with three of the four senior coaches English at the Championship clubs, while the league will have six dedicated referees who will be paid £40,000 a year.
A joint “Promotion and Relegation Commission”, chaired by an independent QC, would decide on promotion to the Premiership from the 2025-26 season onwards and there is a proposal that states promotion from National League One to the Championship would also be suspended for at least two seasons.
To expand the fixtures for Championship clubs there would be home matches against Tier Two/Three nations and a national knockout cup, plus a regional “division of origin” competition and an English Championship XV to tour France or South Africa.
Comments on RugbyPass
I hope Leinster’s proud of themselves fielding a poor team. They should decide if they’re all in or not.
1 Go to commentsJordie is looking at 16 games maximum if Leinster reach both the URC and champions cup finals. Thats not guaranteed. Some of those home URC fixtures will be cakewalks as well for Leinster and there is not much doing during the 6 nations in Feb and March so he can probably get a decent rest then. He will have to really put in it for maybe 7 or 8 games max. It should be a good move for both.
13 Go to commentsThe game was a quarter final, not a semi final. Barrett will be here for 6 months, he is no one's replacement at 13. That mantle will most likely ultimately go to Jamie Osborne, though Garry Ringrose has at least 4 more years in him. The long term problem position (in the next 3 years) for Leinster is tighthead prop, though there are a couple of prospects at schools level.
23 Go to commentsSo much for all that hype surrounding the ‘revival’ of Aussie rugby. The Blues were without the likes of regular starters Perofeta, Sullivan, Christie etc… This was a capitulation of the highest order by Australia’s finest. Joe Schmidt definitely has his work cut out for him.
2 Go to commentsYes they can ignore Sotutu. Like Akira Ioane plays OK at Super level but gets lost in tests. Too many chances too many failures.
2 Go to commentsA wallaby front-row of Bell, Blake and Tupou…now that would be hefty
1 Go to comments“But with an exceptional pass accuracy rating “ Which apart from Roigard is not a feature of any of the other 9s in NZ. Kind of basic for a Black 9 dont.you. think? Yet we keep seeing FC and TJ being rated ahead of him? Weird if it’s seen as vital to get our backline beating in your face defences.
1 Go to commentsThanks BeeMc! Looks like many teams need extra time to settle from the quadrennial northern migration. I think generally the quality of the Rugby has held up. Fiji has been fantastic and fun to watch
13 Go to commentsLets compare apples with apples. Lyon sent weak team the week before, but nobody raised an eyebrow. Give the South African teams a few years to build their depth, then you will be moaning that the teams are too strong.
41 Go to commentsDid footballs agents also perform the scout role at some time? I’m surprised more high profile players haven’t taken up the occupation, great way to remain in the game and use all that experience without really requiring a lot of specific expertise?
1 Go to commentsSuper rugby is struggling but that has little to do with sabbaticals. 1. Too many teams from Aust and NZ - should be 3 and 4 respectively, add in 2 from Japan, 1 possibly 2 from Argentina. 2. Inconsistent and poor refereeing, admittedly not restricted to Super rugby. Only one team was reffed at the breakdown in Reds v H’Landers match. Scrum penalty awarded in Canes v Drua when No 8 had the ball in the open with little defence nearby - ideal opportunity to play advantage. Coming back to Reds match - same scrum situation but ref played advantage - Landers made 10 yards and were penalised at the breakdown when the ref should have returned to scrum penalty. 3. Marketing is weak and losing ground to AFL and NRL. Playing 2 days compared with 4. 4. Scheduling is unattractive to family attendance. Have any franchises heard of Sundays 2pm?
13 Go to commentsAbsolutely..all they need is a chance in yhe playoffs and I bet all the other teams will be nervous…THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN IM THE PLAYOFFS..
2 Go to commentsI really hope he comes back and helps out with some coaching.
1 Go to commentsI think we are all just hoping that the Olympic 7s doesn’t suffer the same sad fate as the last RWC with the officials ruining the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsPersonally, I’ve lost the will to even be bothered about the RFU, the structure, the participants. It’s all a sham. I now simply enjoy getting a group of friends together to go and watch a few games a year in different locations (including Europe, the championship, etc). I feel extremely sorry for the real fans of these clubs who are constantly ignored by the RFU and other administrators. I feel especially sorry for the fans of clubs in the Championship who have had considerable central funding stripped away and are then expected to just take whatever the RFU put to them. Its all a sham, especially if the failed clubs are allowed to return.
10 Go to commentsI’m guessing Carl Hayman would have preferred to have stayed in NZ with benefit of hindsight. Up north there is the expectation to play twice as many games with far less ‘player management’ protocols that Paul is now criticising. Less playing through concussions means longer, healthier, careers. Carter used as the eg here by Paul, his sabbatical allowed him to play until age 37. OK its not an exact science but there is far more expectations on players who sign for Top 14 or Engl Prem clubs to get value for the huge salaries. NZR get alot wrong but keeping their best players in NZ rugby is not one of them. SA clubs are virtually devoid of their top players now, no thanks. They cant threaten the big teams in the Champions Cup, the squads have little depth. Cant see Canes/Chiefs struggling. Super has been great this year, fantastic high skill matches. Drua a fantastic addition and Jaguares will add another quality team eventually. Aus teams performing strongly and no doubt will benefit with the incentive of a Lions tour and a home RWC. Let Jordie enjoy his time with Leinster, it will allow the opportunity for another player to emerge at Canes in his absence.
13 Go to commentsLove that man, his way to despise angry little men is so funny ! 😂
6 Go to comments“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
25 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
6 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
10 Go to comments