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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:03:07:13:08:25 by Kimbo.

Here we go again the RFU hell bent on destroying our Championship. God help us !!!! A very dark day indeed for all the Championship clubs. RIP championship it was great being part of you for so long.

It is a disgrace if true.

I would be happy for Coventry not to be part of that system - because the Premiership Reserve teams will fail to complete all their fixtures like they did in the A League.

I would rather see Cov back in National 1 with a full season of fixtures.

Long time reader of this forum and very surprised this is not gathering more attention.

If this is pushed through I believe this will be the end of professional rugby below the Premiership.

1. I find it hard to believe that anyone will actively ‘support’ a Premiership reserve side, other than as an extension of supporting the 1st XV
2. This proposed version of Championship will be a significantly watered down product for the supporters of any existing teams who remain and I believe interest/attendances will drop off as a result
3. Not clear from the information released but this would appear to be step closer to ring-fencing the Premiership and/or proposed revamped second tier

This should be opposed by all rugby supporters. I have been watching Championship rugby since the early 2000s and think it is a fantastic league and has a crucial role to play in professional sport in the UK. Looking at the current league, the Championship provides several towns or regions with their only professional sports team (Cornish Pirates, Bedford, Jersey, Ampthill) and taking this away would not only be extremely unfair for loyal paying supporters but also for young aspiring professional players.

I hope that local MPs are being engaged and will consult with the RFU on this proposal.

Champ Supporter

I appreciate your post and note your comments just posted. I do agree that there needs to be a groundswell of opposition to these self-serving and protectionist proposals, designed purely to protect the fund swallowing, attendance falling Premiership currently in existence.
The strangulation and crushing of Championship sides needs to be addressed and attacked at every opportunity, Championship sides and their supporters need to be aware of these proposals, proposals that have been bubbling under for months, mooted but now being openly discussed by favoured journalists, journalists who are falsely being told it's a ' done deal'.
The confidence that the RFU have in getting these passed is, I hope, false confidence. They have been emboldened by the disunity of Championship clubs, poorly led and ill-advised by its complacent and moribund leadership. Only now is it clear to see that these proposals are purely aimed at benefitting Premiership teams, giving their A team players game time , something that they have patently been unable to achieve or ever likely to achieve. The Academy system in the Premiership has failed.
Only by all Championship supporters making their voices heard, making approaches to ALL teams below Tier 2 to saying NO to their Constitutent Bodies, County Representatives will this ill-advised adventure be thrown out.
If you want to see what the preferred model, loss of identity, players coming in and out, could be , look just down the M1 and note not all of their supporters are happy.
Keep it going, support your local Championship club and make your voice heard.

The Prem/RFU are a bunch of shysters.

This bullshirt is one of the reasons I haven’t bothered watching any rugby at all (other than Cov) since just before Covid.
.

There is only one reason for this.
MONEY.
In other words, to keep most of any money in the coffers of premiership clubs.
The RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION is supposed to represent all rugby, from grass roots up.
I'd like to know what planet these people are on.

So today is the day? But knowing the RFU it won't be and it will slip out tomorrow?

Hidden amongst all the press and clamour for England v Wales... the first game at Twikkers for 2 years.... blah blah blah

It's probably already decided we're playing second teams next season

If this venture tries to pass, lots of players, admin and coaching staff would lose their jobs..attendances would drop through the floor. I certainly would not be attending matches dominated by wasps players. Rugby seems to continue to love visiting casualty after it constantly shoots itself in the foot, since the inception of professionalism. Very rarely does it learn from its mistakes. An identity is what people crave, not a Mish mash..

It depends on the ideal s and motives of those who control, that said not holding my breath though.

The reported proposal would seem to lack any sporting integrity.
1. Why would a Championship team want to play in a league where over half the participants cannot be promoted, and I assume none of the participants can be relegated?
2. In any given week, the Championship team could be playing against a strong or weak "A" team, dependent upon their first team fixtures and/or international call ups.
3. How many games would be called off because the "A" teams don't have enough players? It may not matter to the Premiership club, but it will to the supporters and finances of the Championship clubs.
4. Are the Championship clubs going to be given sufficient funding in order to have any chance of competing?
5. Are the Premiership clubs going to need even more players, in order to be able to run two sides, further reducing the pool to Championship clubs?
I don't go to the Butts on a Saturday afternoon to perhaps see a future England speedster - I go to watch my team in competitive action (win or lose!). Supporters are clearly a complete irrelevance in this reported proposal.
We have already seen our funding drastically reduced, and I am at a complete loss to understand why all the great work being done by Championship clubs, should be thrown away by the failure of the Premiership clubs and the RFU to produce a financially viable product and a successful (relative to the numbers and funding) international side.

Julian Ballinger

The SRU in Scotland have destroyed the club game. The so called super 6 beliw Glasgow and Edinburgh is a joke. Hope this nonsense is not ratified by the RFU.

I think that it might end up as " ITS RUGBY JIM BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT"

Well, it looks as if for now the proposal taken to RFU council was to keep the Championship too small to be economically viable, and rather than merging it with the Premiership reserves to follow it with a meaningless cup competition merged with the Premiership reserves.

Can they not see the problem?

Premiership - moving up to 14 teamsb- massive financial support.

Championship - national - 12 teams

National 1 - national 14 teams

National 2 - regional, 3x 14 teams.

12 teams plus a pointless cup does not make a viable season.. It 8s designed to ensure commercial failure of the Championship clubs.

Old Nick I agree.

The real stupid thing is they are trying to kill off the more ambitious and financial viable Championship Clubs. The very clubs that help develope Prem players. It is brainless business sense????

I check out the official's appointments for the six nations. All the RFU representatives have learnt their trade through Championship fixtures. So it is not only player's that benefit from appearing at that level.

covmick/Michael Carter

It seems absurd that an ongoing 14 team Premiership is being considered, when you then add in European fixtures, and internalional call ups. Can it really be the case that squad players cannot be found enough game time in that congested fixture list?
If we are going to find ourselves in a 12 team league, in preference to a meaningless cup competitition, perhaps a play off system involving all the Championship clubs would be better.
At the end of the "regular season" the top six and the bottom six would be separated. The teams would take forward their points earned, and would then play (only once) the other five teams in their "half".
The top three in each "division" would play three games at home, whilst the other three would play only two home games. The highest that the team in the lower half could finish in the overall league would be seventh. For promotion (ha ha!) and relegation, it would be the positions after the play offs which mattered.
It's not ideal but far better than the RFU current proposal.

There is a lot of comment in todays 'The Rugby Paper', not all favourable to the RFU (none of it ?). Apart from a cup competition, there is a suggestion the Championship is replaced by some kind of second tier comprising some current Chamionship teams and Premiership 'reserve'/'A' teams, or some other team cobbled together from each Premiership club or those who can be bothered. As other posters have commented, it never worked in the past. However, what may be of some incentive to the Premiership clubs is that they/some seem to want an extra £1m - yes, 1 million pounds - to fund this.
So, apart from the merits of some hybrid league of teams from clubs that care, e.g Coventry, Doncaster, etc, and those who don't (maybe I may misjudge the ambition and support for the Premiership 'other' teams), the impoverished (my words, I have no evidence for this ) Premiership clubs want an extra £1m to fund these teams to play against teams from clubs who have already had their financial support from the RFU cut to a derisory level, a lot less than £1m. Perhaps I have not read the small print - looks like very few people and especially no supporters have had sight of it due to it's 'confidential' nature - and somewhere in there is a proposal to provide extra support for non-Premiership clubs which will at least match that of the Premiership teams in this new league.
These are some of the proposals which I think have been included in the proposals - I stand to be corrected.
There is also a comment in TRP from a former chief exec of the RFU that the proposals should be open to discussion and debate. Until that happens we can only discuss, debate and speculate amongst ourselves about what may or may not happen, and have some fun doing it !