Premiership relegation set to be axed this season amid Covid-19 cash squeeze

RFU Council expected to vote in favour of 13-team league

Professional Game Board and Premiership Rugby are in favour

Relegation from the Premiership is set to be officially scrapped in mid-season following a Rugby Football Union Council vote on Friday to approve a proposed expansion to 13 teams from 2021-22. The principle of automatic promotion and relegation has previously been a fundamental pillar of the English domestic game in the professional era.

While the council vote is not expected to be unanimous, RFU sources suggest the unique financial problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have tilted the debate in favour of reprieving the club that finishes bottom in this season’s Premiership.

With Saracens also in the Championship, which has yet to start, there is growing pressure from all sides to find a compromise. A simple majority of council members, who represent the English game’s various constituent bodies, will be sufficient with the Professional Game Board and Premiership Rugby having already approved the move.

It is understood there is also a willingness among leading clubs to expand the Premiership to 14 sides for the 2022-23 season, followed by a two-year moratorium on promotion and relegation.

Any side aspiring to come up thereafter would have to meet stringent criteria on finance and facilities.

The arguments for and against ringfencing the top league have raged for years but, while further votes would be required to ensure a permanently “closed” league, the gap between the Premiership and the Championship has been widened by Covid-19.

The Championship is supposed to start on 6 March but several sides have already indicated they will be unable to participate this season because of a lack of income and furloughed staff.

Premiership clubs are also feeling the financial squeeze, with five matches this season having already been postponed because of Covid-19 outbreaks.

Suspending relegation and promoting this year’s Championship winners, almost certainly Saracens or Ealing Trailfinders, would end any possibility of a consistently Covid-afflicted team being relegated.