In many ways English club rugby history is simply repeating itself. For Worcester and Wasps read Richmond and London Scottish at the end of the last century, evocative old names for whom the financial bell tolled abruptly. “We’re almost in exactly the same space as we were in 1999 – apart from the fact there are extra noughts on the end,” suggests Richmond’s former chairman Peter Moore. “Otherwise it’s the same result: almost everybody’s still losing money.”
Has the English game learned anything? If so, it is not yet glaringly apparent. Plenty of people, for example, are already making confident noises about two leagues of 10 – a Premiership 1 and Premiership 2 – from 2024‑25 without explaining how the secondary half of that equation can be funded. At the very least it will require a fundamental overhaul, of governance and how Premiership owners think and operate.
There is also a casual assumption that poor old Worcester and Wasps should be free to ditch their debts and restart in the Championship without a backward glance. “There’s a lot of anger within the game towards the Premiership clubs at the moment,” says another Championship source. “London Welsh, Richmond and London Scottish all had to start back at the bottom. If these clubs’ businesses are millions in debt, how are they just able to start up again?”
Talk to anyone in the second tier and it becomes equally clear the current funding model will need a radical rethink if two leagues of 10 are to become a reality. Currently Premiership clubs receive £4m per annum while Championship sides are allocated just under £150,000 apiece from the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby Ltd combined. How much of a rush would there be among Premiership owners to agree instead to 20 clubs being allocated £2m each for the greater good?
Moore, for one, is already raising a quizzical eyebrow. “I don’t think you could have one group that gets the majority of the income and expect Level Two to be fully professional. I think the Championship is a very good competition – virtually every team can beat another on a good day – but it’s not financially sustainable as a fully professional league. That’s impossible unless there is external funding support.”
Just six miles away at Ealing Trailfinders, similar concerns hang in the autumnal west London air. Ealing, unlike Richmond, have a fully professional squad and are keen to be promoted. They have already ticked some impressive boxes – a strong link with Brunel University, the potential for the club’s academy side to feature in British Universities and Colleges Sport Super Rugby next year, a bid to field a Premier XVs women’s team – but the suitability of their modest-sized stadium at Vallis Way remains a sticking point.
They would have made the Premiership leap already had the RFU not ruled them ineligible last season because the venue was deemed not to meet the strict promotion criteria. Subsequently, the club has been advised promotion could now happen in May with a 5,000 capacity as long as a contractor has been engaged and the necessary planning and safety assurances are in place to guarantee a 10,001-capacity arena for the following season.
Given the worsening financial climate and the Premiership’s current instability, Ealing are wondering if this is entirely fair or practicable. Even Premier League football demands a mere 5,000 minimum capacity. “We could host Manchester United here and then go and play at Old Trafford in front of 74,000 but we can’t host a Premiership rugby game,” says Ben Ward, the Trailfinders’ director of rugby. “When you’re talking about integrity in rugby and clubs not going bust, why would any business spend £15m on the unknown?”
It is a good question and one to which everyone at Ealing, backed by the travel company founded by the millionaire businessman Sir Mike Gooley, would like a clear official answer. What about the wider optics, too, of a smartly run club with no debts being excluded from the Premiership again while the supposed elite collapse in a heap? “What happened to us last year I thought was fundamentally wrong,” says Ward. “But it’s been made even more wrong by the fact other clubs are still being allowed to operate in debt. You can’t be that much in debt and it still be a case of spend, spend, spend. You can’t have 167 people being made redundant at Wasps and think rugby is in a healthy state. There needs to be a complete reset.”
In that respect, everyone seems on the same page. If one thing has changed since the late 90s it has been the splintering of romantic notions that English professional club rugby is immune to the laws of economic gravity. Having seen his club plunge right to the bottom of the league pyramid before patiently working their way back up again, Moore is quietly proud of Richmond’s reinvention as a prudent Championship club. “We took a deliberate decision that we wanted to be self sustainable and we were able to pay off £1.5m of debt on the way up. RFU officials have said to me, ‘Richmond aren’t aspiring to play in the Premiership, you’re not an aspiring club.’ To which I replied: ‘We are an aspiring club. I just don’t aspire to lose millions every year.’”
Time is already of the essence with unbeaten Ealing – who face London Scottish on Saturday – urgently needing to know exactly what they can offer existing players and potential new recruits. There are also the significant implications for Championship funding if Worcester and Wasps were to enter a 14-team second tier next season, with the existing pot already spread thin between the existing 12 clubs.
It all boils down, ultimately, to what English rugby wants to be. Ward, for one, reckons the upcoming decisions will fundamentally shape the game’s future. “France have got three full-time leagues. If we can’t have two, with 20 full-time teams, we’ve got a serious issue.
“If they looked at two leagues of 10 – a Prem 1 and Prem 2 – I actually don’t disagree with that. You could then have smaller squads and more young players getting opportunities. That’s ultimately what we want for the national team. But if you do that there has to be equal funding for those 20 sides.” The sums, as ever, have to add up if the whole club game is ever going to thrive.
