'We have currently 11 of 12 clubs about to lose money for the third year running...it's a broken model'
Newcastle chief Mick Hogan has called for an end to Premiership relegation on the eve of a match that will have a huge say in whether the Falcons preserve their top flight status for next season.
The Semore Kurdi-owned club are favourites for the dreaded drop to the Championship, a favouritism that will be reinforced if the bottom side fail on Sunday to beat nearest strugglers Worcester, who are nine points above them along with Bristol with eight matches remaining.
Managing director Hogan believes the league needs to be ring-fenced for the sake of its financial future and quality of entertainment. “I’m not saying this just because of the fact we’re currently in 12th and would be favourites to go down. It’s a view I have held consistently,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s the same in every sport. I fully support promotion and relegation in football because it has got so many big clubs and the gap, while it is there, is not as big. The gap now in between the (rugby) Premiership and Championship is enormous and it’s only really the top team, London Irish, that have any chance of coming up and kicking on.
“The other thing people say is ‘you’re stopping the aspirations of smaller clubs’. Listen, they have had 25 years to get to the Premiership. How long do they want? It’s fair to say that if it hasn’t happened after 25 years it’s probably not going to happen.
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“And if you come up now with the way the system is and the funding and all the rest, you’re going to need £20/£25million to stay up there. That is too much money that is going to have to be spent to sustain the club at an artificial level.
“I do get the argument as well where you can’t stop the aspirations, but at what cost? We have currently got 11 of the 12 clubs about to lose money for the third year running. It’s a broken model.
“A broken model because we’re all spending far too much money on players – and for six or seven of the clubs that money is not spent on players to try and win the competition, it’s spent on players to try and stay in the competition. That’s not right.”
They don't come much more important than this for @FalconsRugby ?@WorcsWarriors will be looking up the table after a nerve-racking late victory on the weekend ?
Start of a Falcons resurgence? ?
Read more:https://t.co/EAZ6Q0yt6Z pic.twitter.com/uSpLBNSWwq
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) February 27, 2019
Ranked 10th out of 12 in the top flight in terms of turnover and wage bill, Newcastle, who have just three wins in 14 games this season, are a club whose crowds are lower than the league’s average and struggle to reach the salary cap’s ceiling.
Hogan believes ring-fencing would attract more investment into the league and encourage clubs to throw off the shackles on the pitch, providing spectators with a more glittery spectacle.
“If we had a Championship that was at the level of investment and the size of the clubs in the football, I’d be all for it. There’s an obvious reason why there is promotion and relegation within football. They have 92 professional clubs.
“We have got within rugby only 15 full-time clubs. The rest in the Championship are part-time. I get that promotion is great for clubs and everyone points to Exeter. Now Exeter did a fantastic job in getting up and then they have kicked on from there, but Exeter are very much the exception rather than the rule.
“For every Exeter there has been a Rotherham, there has been a London Welsh, there been a Leeds who have gone down. Worcester and London Irish have been up and down a number of times. Bristol have been up and down a number of times. There are far more examples of where promotion and relegation doesn’t work and perhaps one obvious example where it does.
“It can prevent long-term thinking, it can prevent investment. It just puts strain on vision. I know that people say it’s about rugby, it’s on the field. I get all that but I just believe as well that squads would be stronger if we didn’t have relegation because clubs would invest more in English-qualified players and take a longer-term view on them.
? Your #GallagherPrem table ?
@ExeterChiefs return to the summit of the table ?
It's anyone's guess for those coveted 3rd and 4th spots ? after @gloucesterrugby ? @Harlequins ? @SaleSharksRugby and @SaintsRugby all picked up big wins ?
Who will make the top 4?? ? pic.twitter.com/A75hvzhxFc
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) February 24, 2019
“I’ll throw this stat at you – six of the seven World Cup winners so far have come from a system where there is no promotion and relegation. The only one is England and that was 16 years ago. Are the two linked? I think they are because we have a style of play now in the Premiership that is all about not losing. It’s not very expressive as some of the other nations.
“Again, you look at the PRO14 where there is no promotion and relegation. How many of their teams have won the Heineken Cup and have been doing better and better year on year?
“Wales will probably win the Six Nations this year. Ireland have been dominant recently. It’s such an attritional game now that you have to be able to rotate squads perhaps more than we are able to in the Premiership and you can do that if you know there is no fear of relegation.
“It [no relegation] doesn’t stop the ambition of clubs like Leinster wanting to win every year and Scarlets, there is no lack of ambition in the PRO14. But what there is is a system without relegation that promotes entertaining rugby.
“The Premiership does as well, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not that negative approach to playing you can get in the Premiership.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments