Halliday calls for clarity on Championship funding issues

Championship clubs are calling for the funding issues surrounding next season’s reintroduction of promotion-relegation to be ratified urgently.

While a home and away play-off between the Championship winners and bottom Premiership club was approved at an RFU Council meeting last month, the Championship board chairman Simon Halliday told The Rugby Paper that key financial details which have been discussed and agreed in principle, have yet to be decided.

Halliday, above, said: “We made it clear to the RFU Council that we had to bridge the gap on funding for any Championship club that is promoted. And we need to agree that any ‘P’ share distribution to a relegated Premiership club must be banked while they are in the Championship, and not used as a parachute payment. We still have to get that done.”

Championship clubs believe that the Premiership funding regulations around promotion-relegation have become so punitive that they are severely handicapped.

They argue that a promoted Championship club receiving barely half the funding of its Premiership rivals is anti-competitive – and that the same applies to Championship teams facing a relegated Premiership club with a multi-million pound war-chest, while they receive just £150,000.

Halliday contends that the only way to stop the yo-yo affect of a promoted Championship club going straight back down, and a relegated Premiership club going straight back up, is fair funding.

“The RFU/Premier-competition’s elite rep-ship has to resolve these issues – or why would any Championship club put themselves up for promotion? And how can the RFU Council accept that situation when promotion-relegation is now embedded in the PGP?”

He added a warning that this could lead to further repercussions: “The new Tier 2 board is mandated to serve the best interests of our league, and that includes a credible system of promotion and relegation.

Halliday concluded: “If we start another season with only Doncaster able to go up, that will not be acceptable.”

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