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Sweeping changes could be on the way for Premiership rugby with a view to greater financial sustainability - Getty Images/David Rogers
English rugby is plotting a revolution of the professional game with a franchise model that will abolish relegation but include promotion to expand the Premiership.
Telegraph Sport can reveal that plans, which would mark the most significant changes to the domestic game since the dawn of professionalism in 1995, are already being drawn up in the hope of ratification before the start of next season.
Senior figures within Premiership Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and shareholders CVC Capital Partners have spent several months developing a comprehensive blueprint that could come into force as early as 2026 - and certainly before 2028 - that includes:
- making the Premiership a franchise league, similar to cricket’s Indian Premier League, which centralises commercial operations and kit deals and distributes revenue equally between the league’s clubs;
- revising the controversial promotion criteria to include factors like fanbase, financial stability and regional value;
- abolishing relegation from the Premiership but maintaining promotion to support expansion;
- discussing a rebrand of the Premiership name.
In what has been dubbed a “new era for English professional club rugby”, leading executives hope to employ a franchise model for the Premiership similar to that of the IPL and the Hundred - or the NFL in the United States. Existing Premiership club identities and locations would not alter, although it is thought that the name of the league is up for debate.
While clubs would still be free to explore their own sponsorship deals such as stadium naming rights, a franchise structure would see a centralisation of commercial deals. Currently the league negotiates its TV and title sponsor deals as one, but the new system would see a significant increase on league-wide agreements. Finer details are due to be formalised in the coming months.
Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive who recently survived a vote of no confidence, is understood to be in favour of these proposals, with his survival last month crucial to their progression.
Promotion will be a key pillar of the plans, seen by Telegraph Sport, with geographical expansion and financial sustainability two recurring concepts - as well as added incentives for entry to the Premiership from the Championship.
It is understood that further governance reform is in the works, with executives keen to create a role with “commissioner-like powers” to run the league. Centralisation of commercial rights - for example, with all clubs using the same kit manufacturer - is also part of the project.
The plans outline how the league’s executives desire a Premiership of at least 12 clubs, with numbers of 14 or even greater up for consideration.
Relegation will be abolished in the new vision, with acceptance growing in English rugby’s corridors of power that potential investors are being turned off by the presence of such jeopardy.
With three clubs having gone bust in 2022-23, Premiership Rugby’s belief is that clubs can no longer attract the kind of investment required while the threat of relegation exists. This is despite recent improvement in investment conditions such as greater financial regulation, the Professional Game Partnership, a men’s professional rugby board and the imminent closure of a long-term, increased television deal.
“Relegation has become a financial millstone around the neck of clubs,” said a source close to the discussions. “The instability it breeds has led to short-term decision-making, investor uncertainty, and, in many cases, financial ruin. Persisting with a system that restricts investment and prevents long-term growth is no longer an option.”
It is understood that the new plan has been devised by Premiership Rugby alongside members of the RFU men’s professional rugby board. All are thought to be fully aligned with the drafts while support was unanimous amongst Premiership clubs.
Now the plans will be presented to the RFU council in both June and September, with the Premiership understood to be open to a multiple-stage sign-off.
The sticking point for the revolution is that “promotion and relegation” has developed into one of English rugby’s thorniest issues.
The RFU Council, under pressure from Championship clubs who are governed separately to the Premiership, has long been reluctant to abolish the concepts entirely in order to prevent aspirational clubs from reaching the top flight; therefore creating a closed shop and preventing the “next Exeter” from emerging. The Chiefs earned promotion to the Premiership for the first time in 2010 and since then have won the Premiership twice plus the Champions Cup in 2020.
The hope, however, is that the RFU Council - as well as the Championship clubs - may be persuaded by this latest promotion-and-relegation offering given that all previous iterations have abolished both elements.
The future blueprint would do away with relegation but keep promotion alongside a revised minimum standards criteria, so that the Premiership can focus on growth and expansion. The league is keen to establish a presence in untapped rugby strongholds such as Yorkshire, Kent and Cornwall as well as other top-flight professional rugby black holes.
The Premiership’s thinking around updating its minimum standards criteria has taken inspiration from the Rugby Football League’s grading system that saw social-media followers and match attendances contribute towards promotion and relegation, alongside other metrics.
“Revenue performance and potential, ⁠financial backing, number of fans, a high-performance plan (with track record), regional presence and brand strength could all come into the promotion criteria,” said another source with knowledge of the blueprint. “It will be about having a business plan, not a tick-box audit list.”
One of the 10 Premiership clubs, Newcastle, is actively seeking new ownership with consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond saying last month that he was uncertain whether the Falcons would find outside investment - or they could need to lean on a loan of between £3 million and £4 million from rival top-flight clubs and CVC to get through next season.
Newcastle’s owner, Semore Kurdi, is believed to be happy to sell the Falcons for a nominal £1 while retaining ownership of the stadium site. The belief at Premiership HQ is that Kurdi’s chances of selling or finding new investment would dramatically increase were the threat of relegation to disappear.
The investment potential in a franchising model is far greater, too, given that potential backers would fund a central league “pot” which would then be redistributed to the clubs. Finer details are still to be finalised in this domain but there is nothing in the plans to say that clubs’ existing sponsorship deals must end.
The blueprint aligns with the tier-two board’s plans for an expanded Championship, which was unveiled last Thursday and which will include the once bankrupt Worcester. So-called “phoenix clubs” - Wasps and London Irish amongst them - as well as current teams in under-represented geographical areas, are key to the vision, even if some of those ventures require more time to become concrete. It is thought that the return of the Warriors has proven that there are investors willing to back a rugby club.
Promoted clubs would be offered the chance to purchase a lucrative ‘P-share’ that would allow access to distributions from the league’s central funding. There would also be potential readmission of the Championship clubs to the Premiership Rugby Cup as well as the possibility of European Challenge Cup entry. “This system is not about creating a closed league,” added a source.
Premiership Rugby declined to comment when approached by Telegraph Sport. RFU declined to comment.
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