Premiership plans to expand top flight could be ‘dead’ forever

Proposals for a 14-team Premiership and a moratorium on promotion and relegation from season 2016-17 are dead.
The Rugby Paper can reveal that opposition from Championship clubs, the RFU and from within their own organisation have forced Premiership Rugby to put plans for an expanded, ring-fenced top-flight on the back-burner.
RFU officials will announce this week that promotion and relegation arrangements for 2015-16 are unchanged, with one side to be demoted from the Premiership and a Championship club promoted via the much-derided play-offs.
That will come as a blow to Premiership sides like Worcester, Newcastle and London Irish, who had been hoping to benefit from a moratorium which would have offered security against relegation for a period of up to five years.
Championship favourites Bristol, Yorkshire Carnegie and revitalised London Welsh must now battle it out for a single promotion spot.
“It may be a dead duck forever,” one Championship insider told TRP. “Premiership Rugby started a hare running in March over going to 14 teams, but they hadn’t spoken to any of us or the RFU and now seem to have backed off. They wanted to rush it through but lost the plot a bit.”
Some Premiership clubs were known to be lukewarm over expansion proposals, with Leicester chief executive Simon Cohen recently expressing concern over splitting £41m in central revenues 14 ways instead of 12.
Slicing the cake further would have meant a £500,000 reduction in funding for existing Premiership sides, with concerns also expressed over fixture congestion, player burnout and the loss of the developmental LV= Cup.
However, Worcester chief executive Jim O’Toole feels an opportunity has been wasted, telling TRP: “I think it was a moment to grasp and although it’s an incredibly political landscape, I do feel a chance has been missed.
“There are three sets of players though – RFU, Premiership and Championship – and they all had to be aligned, which at one point I thought they were. But unfortunately it didn’t happen and we have to move on.”
Gloucester supported expansion proposals vigorously and their chief executive, Stephen Vaughan, hopes the plan can be resurrected from season 2017-18.
Vaughan told TRP: “We’ll continue to champion it and look at the format of our league, but at the moment expansion means more matches during internationals, which is not really what the clubs or the RFU are looking for.
“I still think it’s got merit and although some clubs are for it, there are enough clubs against it and it will need a lot of consultation to get it up and running again.”
NEALE HARVEY