News
Statement from the Bedford Blues Board of Directors
We are circulating the press release issued on behalf of the Championship Clubs following the RFU Council Meeting on Friday 14th June.
That RFU Council meeting approved some important changes to the second tier of English rugby, drawing to a close a long period of negotiations, which sought to review and re-organise the Championship within the set-up of the professional game in England.
You may have also seen some press comment over the weekend on the implications for Championship clubs. We think it is important that all our supporters in the Bedford Blues community have sight of this, and our own views at Bedford Blues.
We believe that, although far from perfect, on balance we are pleased to see the proposals. On the vital issue of Promotion and Relegation, there have been helpful alterations on the ground criteria, which does provide an agreed pathway for promotion. There will be a play-off between the Championship winners and the club finishing bottom of the Premiership from next season, 24/25 and onwards. Of course, the ground criteria will still need to be met to enter that play-off.
However, there is as yet no agreement to resolve the inequitable funding between the Championship and the Premiership. As it stands, that discrepancy means that going up to the Premiership would be financially out of the range of the majority of Championship clubs. There is an agreement to keep this under review, and we think that there is some movement from the Premiership clubs on finding a better financial bridge, but although discussions on this will continue, at the present time there is no proposal in place.
The second major initiative to be welcomed is the setting up of the Tier 2 management board, to run all matters relating to the Championship. This body will consist of an equal representation of Championship and RFU members and will have an independent Chairman. It will be able to make decisions on the commercial development of the second tier league, and will have control, with the RFU, on the ability to distribute some of the central funding package. This is going to be a key body for the future governance of our competition and is a very important step forward.
All this has to be set in the context of the challenging financial environment surrounding professional rugby in its entirety. The RFU has been adamant that there is very limited funding available from central resources, and we are all in agreement that the game at Tier 2 level needs to be grown in terms of sponsorship and broadcasting, to improve overall revenues. This means that the majority of the increase in funding agreed for Tier 2, will go towards generating this growth - so we will see little improvement, if any, in direct funding.
We give these changes a cautious but positive welcome, acknowledging that there is still a lot of work to do. It was by no means a perfect outcome, but it was one in which we made our contribution to the debate and can be relatively satisfied with what has been achieved.
Credit should be given to all those involved in representing the Championship in these negotiations, but particularly Simon Halliday. As Chairman, he communicated really effectively and managed to maintain absolute unity amongst a wide range of different clubs, all of whom have very different business models and ambitions. We will continue to support that unity of purpose and think that some very important first steps have been made.
Full statement by the Championship Clubs (14th June 2024) (215.8KB)
