Changes to the Championship - no longer a case of say hello, wave goodbye?

And now your life's a mess

So insecure you see

I put up with all the scenes

And this is one scene

That's going to be played my way

Take your hands off me

I don't belong to you, you see

Take a look at my face

For the last time

I never knew you

You never knew me

Say hello goodbye

Say hello wave goodbye

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell

Rumours of changes to the Championship's current structure have been in the offing for a couple of seasons now. In the past, it's say hello to one as you wave goodbye to another, but at long last there does seem to be some agreement as to the main revisions currently being considered by the RFU.

I say 'considered' only because as yet the RFU has declined to make any official announcement, but with only a few weeks left to the end of the season, you'd hope decisions have been made by now.

Hope, although not necessarily expect, given the RFU's track record in recent years.

For the second week running, The Rugby Paper has give column inches to the mess that the national leagues, particularly the Championship and Premiership, currently find themselves in.

On Sunday, in a full page article, Nick Cain (always worth a read) offered his assessment of the direction in which things are moving and it's not dissimilar to what I've heard elsewhere, both on a Cov matchday and on various social media sites. Taken individually, no one source should necessarily be believed, but when there is a general consensus over a period of weeks, then perhaps there is some credibility in what we're hearing.

Cain did offer some interesting opinions (it is an Opinion Column after all) on Ealing's wish to merge with Ospreys - something he feels is no more than an attempt to force the RFU into reconsidering 'the ground criteria exclusion zone it has allowed the Premiership cartel to impose'. He feels that Ealing will definitely be part of the Championship next season and to support that view he even quotes Y11 Sport and Media, Ospreys main backers, as saying that reports of a proposed merger between the two clubs are 'incorrect'.

Cain goes on to emphasise that time is now of the essence and that all stakeholders need clarity as to what will happen in September. Stating the obvious for sure, but cloths need to be cut to size and without knowing what clothes they'll need to be wearing, how much cloth they'll have to work with, or indeed how much funding they'll be given to buy it with, then national leagues below the Premiership simply won't be able to plan ahead with any confidence.

Cain does go on to detail the changes as he understands them, accepting though that plans are currently sketchy. For the sake of clarity, it is worth quoting him here as he succinctly explains how things might look over the next could of seasons.

He writes:

next season (2023-24) two of the 11 clubs in the Premiership will be relegated, and the Championship winners promoted, leaving 10 Premiership clubs to complete for the title in 2024-25.

This means the Championship increasing to 13 clubs (from 12) in the 2023-24 season with Ealing remaining in the league and the newly reconstituted Wasps joining it, along with a promoted team from National One and the tail-enders relegated (now London Scottish).

At the end of the 2023-24 Championship season, five clubs will be relegated, and the remaining eight will be joined by two relegated clubs from the Premiership, creating a 10 team Championship for the 2024-25 season.

As has been mentioned in a previous post, alongside this restructuring the RFU will create what Cain describes as a 'hybrid' cup competition, starting next season. In essence, this will be an opportunity for Premiership clubs to pit their 'A' teams against Championship opposition. There were mutterings in the not so distant past that Premiership clubs would somehow double up with Championship sides, with the junior clubs functioning as little more than Academy sides for their more illustrious partners...so, phew!

A club competition of this nature, though unlikely to be greeted with great enthusiasm by many supporters of Championship clubs, is at least a more acceptable alternative and will provide some much needed additional income to current Tier 2 clubs that have been squeezed dry by the RFU in recent seasons.

Personally, if it means more opportunities to see Cov play, then it's a thumbs up from me.

If Cov chooses to rest key players and put out slightly weaker sides for the Cup run, then so be it, provided the games don't become too one-sided and the draw is determined in such a way that there's an equal chance of Premiership sides playing each other as much as there is Championship opposition.

Of the plans generally, Cain stresses that:

...there is no clarity yet on the crucial issues like promotion-relegation, equal funding for promoted clubs or the dismantling of the 'P' share system.

The final point, the dismantling of the 'P' shares, is crucial. Whatever the changes made, all teams must start on something approaching a level playing field (except Bedford, of course!), at least as far as central funding is concerned. If not, then the whole thing becomes a farce and should be dismissed outright and en masse by the Championship clubs.

I'm not sure how the PRL will view the loss of their coveted 'P' shares as presumably it would mean they would have to lessen their grip on the allocation of funding, as well as bringing about the end to any ring-fencing as there has to be opportunity for one or more clubs from the third tier to be promoted each season into Premiership 2.

Without promotion or relegation, we would be back to square one, with the top two leagues becoming a closed shop and thus ensuring that the game continues to stagnate. In this season's 6 Nations, we've seen just how far behind France and Ireland, and arguably Scotland too, the national game has slipped and there's an argument to be made, and a strong one to boot, that this is due in part to the inefficacy of the current structure at the top of the national league pyramid.

Put simply, promotion and relegation increase interest, generate more revenue and drive forward standards on and off the pitch.

But in the end, it's all going to be down to funding, and with the RFU unlikely to be in a position to finance a major restructuring of this nature, it will depend on how much it has to rely on private equity companies to bail it out. The problem here is that such companies are, first and foremost, responsible to their shareholders who will expect a return for their investment. Rugby would become almost a secondary concern. Last time I looked, only Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership were in the black which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

And if private equity has to be involved, does that mean the RFU will have to let go some of its control and if it does, will we see it remain just as powerless as it currently seem to be?

More questions than answers right now for sure and I would probably have been better beginning this post with the Johnny Nash's classic but 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' is an excuse, if one were needed, to listen Marc Almond, even though it's not the definitive Soft Cell version for the purists.

But Jools Holland is on keyboard duty...

...'nuff said.

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