RugbyRebels

Report in The Times today that the Champ have agreed to pursue breaking away from RFU control.
The outline is for the 21/22 season. It will initially involve ring fencing from above and below (anyone know where I can get a hypocrite emoji from?) and split into two geographically determined conferences with end of season playoffs.
The plan is stick to 12 clubs for the inaugural season and then grow numbers upwards to 16 by promoting from NLD1 as/if the comp settles/thrives.
The infamous Ed Griffiths came up with the plan and has been given authority to bring it to fruition.
The initial plan seems to be to remain semi-pro - all players must be in employment, training or education - and for clubs to stay within their own financial bounds.

Rugby may look very different in 18 months, both internationally and domestically.

Mellsblue wrote:Report in The Times today that the Champ have agreed to pursue breaking away from RFU control.
The outline is for the 21/22 season. It will initially involve ring fencing from above and below (anyone know where I can get a hypocrite emoji from?) and split into two geographically determined conferences with end of season playoffs.
The plan is stick to 12 clubs for the inaugural season and then grow numbers upwards to 16 by promoting from NLD1 as/if the comp settles/thrives.
The infamous Ed Griffiths came up with the plan and has been given authority to bring it to fruition.
The initial plan seems to be to remain semi-pro - all players must be in employment, training or education - and for clubs to stay within their own financial bounds.

Rugby may look very different in 18 months, both internationally and domestically.

As a bedford fan how do you feel about this?

Haven’t really digested it so the below might come out like the ramblings of a drunk man....

I don’t like ring fencing but have begrudgingly accepted that PRL have slowly made it a reality in all but implementation. I therefore don’t agree with ring fencing from below and, if it’s ultimately the aim, would prefer automatically promoting from NLD1 - two per season for the first two seasons and then one per season with a relegation playoff between the bottom two clubs. Hopefully we might see a cup comp with the NLD 1, even if it’s just the top 8 teams or similar, whilst promotion is paused. However, part of me thinks that ring fencing (inc no cup), keeping it to 12, and then following the NFL model of home and away within your conference whilst rotating home or away with those outside your conference would help keep quality higher and produce some marketable rivalries. As I very much doubt you’ll get any/much interest from TV as a stand alone offering, rather than being part of the RFU package, building crowds will key to income in the short term.

I agree with the basic principle of becoming self-sustaining. The RFU said this was the desired outcome at the inception of the Champ but, from what I’ve read and heard, they’ve only ever paid lip service to that aim. However, I’m not sure whether it is possible beyond part time finances. Hopefully, the haves will realise that helping the have nots will ultimately lead to more £££ for all but there are an awful lot more have nots than haves. Having to truly stand on your own two feet always sharpens the mind, though. The ideas such as the grand final and a Champ Select XV playing second tier nations during AIs are innovative ideas that should hopefully bring in extra cash. It will all depend on promoting beyond the usual heartlands and minds, something which rugby in England seems woeful at.

In the short term, I just hope things are split East-West rather than South-North as that should guarantee an away match - Doncaster - that is close enough for me to make the return trip in one day!

Reported here also - https://inews.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/c ... ths-560272

People have been saying for a while that something needs to happen with the Championship, and it appears that this could be it.
I think the idea of moving to semi pro makes sense and I like the prospect of promoting young home coaching and playing talent.
Interesting that the proposals have been unanimously backed by the Champ clubs.

Unanimous agreement is very interesting. After all of their recent investment and the fuss made over giving a Newcastle the title, I’m very surprised Ealing have agreed to it. Sure they’ve had some leavers, but they’re a fully pro club who have signed something crazy like 17/18 players in this window (including quite a few from Premiership clubs) and they clearly have ambitions beyond the Championship.

I think that Ealing are aware that ring fencing is an inevitability and, despite chucking millions at it, they’ve never really come close to promotion. Given RFU funding is about to fall through the floor, they’ll need to ground share in the Prem and they’re still nowhere near 1000 fans on average, the realities of making Ealing a prem club might have forced the decision.

So, are they suggesting that Saracens go up at the end of next season but no club comes down from the Premiership?

It's pay walled in the Telegraph but the Griffiths proposal also suggests that the Premiership academies are closed and replaced with 6 regional, university based hubs, and then there's a "draft" process at the end of it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... -regional/

Can see that the RFU would like it - gives control of the youth set up to them, Championship clubs get the young stars of the game and the premiership sides lose the expense of the academies....

Any chance of a cut and paste?!?!

Premiership Rugby clubs are to be asked to replace their academy system with a network of six “world class regional hubs” as part of a radical plan to overhaul the development pathway in England, Telegraph Sport can reveal. The move, praised as “the most significant innovation since the move to professionalism,” is one of the foundation stones of the new blueprint to remodel the Championship, drawn up by Ed Griffiths, the former Saracens chief executive. Details emerged last week of the proposal to restructure the Championship, with a recommendation that the 12-team division be split into into a northern and southern conference, with promotion to the Premiership based on agreed criteria between the leagues rather than a first-past-the-post format. However it is understood that the proposed new structure would also see the 13 Premiership academies replaced by six regional centres based at universities across the country and linked to two clubs in a modelled Championship. Premiership clubs would then be able to select the best young English talent through an American-style draft each December and give them three-year contracts. The 76-page proposal, which has been seen by Telegraph Sport, forecasts that Premiership clubs would save between £600,000 to £900,000 by closing their academies with the Championship clubs meeting the costs of providing the coaching, strength and conditioning and medical staff at the six hubs. Players would be guaranteed around 30 competitive games per season and after one year would be eligible for the draft system in which each Premiership club would be given four picks from a pool of 60 players.

Griffiths, who has already met with Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, and the professional rugby director, Conor O’Shea, is to make a formal presentation to the Premiership clubs next month after a series of informal discussions. He is also exploring interest from broadcasters, sponsors and universities with the aim of establishing the new academies by the start of the 2021 season. “This proposal tries to primarily find a purpose and a role for a sustainable Championship but what it also tries to do is to harness all the resources available to the game into a more streamlined, integrated pathway for younger players,” Griffiths told Telegraph Sport. “The plan for the new pathway, which would remain under RFU control, would harness universities’ facilities in a hub that would include other educational establishments and crucially Championship clubs, because Championship clubs can provide game time. “There are many failings of the current system but the main one is that the best young players in the country in the Premiership academies spend too much time holding tackle bags and the A League, which I understand is not going to take place next season, has been a pretty poor competition. “Young players in this structure would get world-class rugby coaching in six regional academies, they would get their parallel education and training from universities and associated educational institutions and they would get their game time with the Championship clubs. “That to me is a streamlined, integrated solution where everyone in the game is working together to provide the youngster the best opportunity.” Player welfare is also central to the vision, which has the working title TEC – The English Championship, with a comprehensive programme outlined with “game-leading” regulations including concussion protocols, use of painkillers, rest periods and workload monitoring. “At some point the game is going to have to get serious about protecting players,” Griffiths added. “This will go further on player welfare than any other league in the world at the moment” Griffiths, backed unanimously at a meeting of the Championship clubs last Wednesday to explore a new arrangement, acknowledges however that persuading the clubs to give up their academies will not be an easy task. “We have not ploughed all this money into our academy to hand it over to the Championship,” said one source. The estimated cost of running the new Championship model, including funding player salaries and the new academies, is £15.6 million in the first year, which would require significant investment from both the RFU and Premiership Rugby on top of broadcasting and sponsorship revenues. Griffiths expects the requirement for external funding to reduce year-on-year. “The challenge is to persuade people to change,” said Griffiths. “Change is always viewed with suspicion and ulterior motives but I genuinely think this is a win for everybody – the RFU, the Premiership clubs, the Championship and younger players.”

yeh never going to happen.
PRL will never ever ever vote for this, especially if they have to fund some of it.

I reckon the Northampton and Bedford deals is going to become the thing instead of the draft stuff.

Cheers. It sounds like it’s based on the Ealing academy model. I agree that it’s never going to happen but I wonder if it could be run alongside the existing pathways, catering for players who are not quite good enough to stay in a Prem academy but don’t want to give up on the dream in the hope they are late developers.

The Saints-Bedford ‘merger’, as Blues’ CEO calls it, should be the model to follow in the short to medium term until (if) the Champ clubs can become a self-sustaining pro league.

Mellsblue wrote:Cheers. It sounds like it’s based on the Ealing academy model. I agree that it’s never going to happen but I wonder if it could be run alongside the existing pathways, catering for players who are not quite good enough to stay in a Prem academy but don’t want to give up on the dream in the hope they are late developers.

The Saints-Bedford ‘merger’, as Blues’ CEO calls it, should be the model to follow in the short to medium term until (if) the Champ clubs can become a self-sustaining pro league.

I would like for Tigers to make a official merger with Nottingham really.
We have one with Loughborough which has worked out really well so far.

Tigersman wrote:Premiership Rugby clubs are to be asked to replace their academy system with a network of six “world class regional hubs” as part of a radical plan to overhaul the development pathway in England, Telegraph Sport can reveal. The move, praised as “the most significant innovation since the move to professionalism,” is one of the foundation stones of the new blueprint to remodel the Championship, drawn up by Ed Griffiths, the former Saracens chief executive. Details emerged last week of the proposal to restructure the Championship, with a recommendation that the 12-team division be split into into a northern and southern conference, with promotion to the Premiership based on agreed criteria between the leagues rather than a first-past-the-post format. However it is understood that the proposed new structure would also see the 13 Premiership academies replaced by six regional centres based at universities across the country and linked to two clubs in a modelled Championship. Premiership clubs would then be able to select the best young English talent through an American-style draft each December and give them three-year contracts. The 76-page proposal, which has been seen by Telegraph Sport, forecasts that Premiership clubs would save between £600,000 to £900,000 by closing their academies with the Championship clubs meeting the costs of providing the coaching, strength and conditioning and medical staff at the six hubs. Players would be guaranteed around 30 competitive games per season and after one year would be eligible for the draft system in which each Premiership club would be given four picks from a pool of 60 players.

Griffiths, who has already met with Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, and the professional rugby director, Conor O’Shea, is to make a formal presentation to the Premiership clubs next month after a series of informal discussions. He is also exploring interest from broadcasters, sponsors and universities with the aim of establishing the new academies by the start of the 2021 season. “This proposal tries to primarily find a purpose and a role for a sustainable Championship but what it also tries to do is to harness all the resources available to the game into a more streamlined, integrated pathway for younger players,” Griffiths told Telegraph Sport. “The plan for the new pathway, which would remain under RFU control, would harness universities’ facilities in a hub that would include other educational establishments and crucially Championship clubs, because Championship clubs can provide game time. “There are many failings of the current system but the main one is that the best young players in the country in the Premiership academies spend too much time holding tackle bags and the A League, which I understand is not going to take place next season, has been a pretty poor competition. “Young players in this structure would get world-class rugby coaching in six regional academies, they would get their parallel education and training from universities and associated educational institutions and they would get their game time with the Championship clubs. “That to me is a streamlined, integrated solution where everyone in the game is working together to provide the youngster the best opportunity.” Player welfare is also central to the vision, which has the working title TEC – The English Championship, with a comprehensive programme outlined with “game-leading” regulations including concussion protocols, use of painkillers, rest periods and workload monitoring. “At some point the game is going to have to get serious about protecting players,” Griffiths added. “This will go further on player welfare than any other league in the world at the moment” Griffiths, backed unanimously at a meeting of the Championship clubs last Wednesday to explore a new arrangement, acknowledges however that persuading the clubs to give up their academies will not be an easy task. “We have not ploughed all this money into our academy to hand it over to the Championship,” said one source. The estimated cost of running the new Championship model, including funding player salaries and the new academies, is £15.6 million in the first year, which would require significant investment from both the RFU and Premiership Rugby on top of broadcasting and sponsorship revenues. Griffiths expects the requirement for external funding to reduce year-on-year. “The challenge is to persuade people to change,” said Griffiths. “Change is always viewed with suspicion and ulterior motives but I genuinely think this is a win for everybody – the RFU, the Premiership clubs, the Championship and younger players.”

yeh never going to happen.
PRL will never ever ever vote for this, especially if they have to fund some of it.

I reckon the Northampton and Bedford deals is going to become the thing instead of the draft stuff.

That is a really interesting and inventive idea. There is precisely zero possibility of it happening here.

It could be a good model for T2 nations with a less developed domestic game (and thus less entrenched interests) - places like USA, Canada, Australia, Romania, etc.

Puja

Puja wrote:

Tigersman wrote:Premiership Rugby clubs are to be asked to replace their academy system with a network of six “world class regional hubs” as part of a radical plan to overhaul the development pathway in England, Telegraph Sport can reveal. The move, praised as “the most significant innovation since the move to professionalism,” is one of the foundation stones of the new blueprint to remodel the Championship, drawn up by Ed Griffiths, the former Saracens chief executive. Details emerged last week of the proposal to restructure the Championship, with a recommendation that the 12-team division be split into into a northern and southern conference, with promotion to the Premiership based on agreed criteria between the leagues rather than a first-past-the-post format. However it is understood that the proposed new structure would also see the 13 Premiership academies replaced by six regional centres based at universities across the country and linked to two clubs in a modelled Championship. Premiership clubs would then be able to select the best young English talent through an American-style draft each December and give them three-year contracts. The 76-page proposal, which has been seen by Telegraph Sport, forecasts that Premiership clubs would save between £600,000 to £900,000 by closing their academies with the Championship clubs meeting the costs of providing the coaching, strength and conditioning and medical staff at the six hubs. Players would be guaranteed around 30 competitive games per season and after one year would be eligible for the draft system in which each Premiership club would be given four picks from a pool of 60 players.

Griffiths, who has already met with Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, and the professional rugby director, Conor O’Shea, is to make a formal presentation to the Premiership clubs next month after a series of informal discussions. He is also exploring interest from broadcasters, sponsors and universities with the aim of establishing the new academies by the start of the 2021 season. “This proposal tries to primarily find a purpose and a role for a sustainable Championship but what it also tries to do is to harness all the resources available to the game into a more streamlined, integrated pathway for younger players,” Griffiths told Telegraph Sport. “The plan for the new pathway, which would remain under RFU control, would harness universities’ facilities in a hub that would include other educational establishments and crucially Championship clubs, because Championship clubs can provide game time. “There are many failings of the current system but the main one is that the best young players in the country in the Premiership academies spend too much time holding tackle bags and the A League, which I understand is not going to take place next season, has been a pretty poor competition. “Young players in this structure would get world-class rugby coaching in six regional academies, they would get their parallel education and training from universities and associated educational institutions and they would get their game time with the Championship clubs. “That to me is a streamlined, integrated solution where everyone in the game is working together to provide the youngster the best opportunity.” Player welfare is also central to the vision, which has the working title TEC – The English Championship, with a comprehensive programme outlined with “game-leading” regulations including concussion protocols, use of painkillers, rest periods and workload monitoring. “At some point the game is going to have to get serious about protecting players,” Griffiths added. “This will go further on player welfare than any other league in the world at the moment” Griffiths, backed unanimously at a meeting of the Championship clubs last Wednesday to explore a new arrangement, acknowledges however that persuading the clubs to give up their academies will not be an easy task. “We have not ploughed all this money into our academy to hand it over to the Championship,” said one source. The estimated cost of running the new Championship model, including funding player salaries and the new academies, is £15.6 million in the first year, which would require significant investment from both the RFU and Premiership Rugby on top of broadcasting and sponsorship revenues. Griffiths expects the requirement for external funding to reduce year-on-year. “The challenge is to persuade people to change,” said Griffiths. “Change is always viewed with suspicion and ulterior motives but I genuinely think this is a win for everybody – the RFU, the Premiership clubs, the Championship and younger players.”

yeh never going to happen.
PRL will never ever ever vote for this, especially if they have to fund some of it.

I reckon the Northampton and Bedford deals is going to become the thing instead of the draft stuff.

That is a really interesting and inventive idea. There is precisely zero possibility of it happening here.

It could be a good model for T2 nations with a less developed domestic game (and thus less entrenched interests) - places like USA, Canada, Australia, Romania, etc.

Puja

Yep. Exactly my thoughts.

Mellsblue wrote:Cheers. It sounds like it’s based on the Ealing academy model. I agree that it’s never going to happen but I wonder if it could be run alongside the existing pathways, catering for players who are not quite good enough to stay in a Prem academy but don’t want to give up on the dream in the hope they are late developers.

The Saints-Bedford ‘merger’, as Blues’ CEO calls it, should be the model to follow in the short to medium term until (if) the Champ clubs can become a self-sustaining pro league.

The Ealing-Brunel link up does look to be very interesting and potentially very productive.

Aligning a Prem club with a championship one was what Nigel Melville proposed some years ago. Sounded a good idea at the time and still does to me.

fivepointer wrote:

Mellsblue wrote:Cheers. It sounds like it’s based on the Ealing academy model. I agree that it’s never going to happen but I wonder if it could be run alongside the existing pathways, catering for players who are not quite good enough to stay in a Prem academy but don’t want to give up on the dream in the hope they are late developers.

The Saints-Bedford ‘merger’, as Blues’ CEO calls it, should be the model to follow in the short to medium term until (if) the Champ clubs can become a self-sustaining pro league.

Aligning a Prem club with a championship one was what Nigel Melville proposed some years ago. Sounded a good idea at the time and still does to me.

Yep. It was a good idea. It served both Bedford and Sarries very well over the years and the Saints link up will be even better...... if it does what it says on the tin. The idea was, of course, poo pooed by PRL for the continually dysfunctional, and now (temporarily?) scrapped, A-league.

fivepointer wrote:

Mellsblue wrote:Cheers. It sounds like it’s based on the Ealing academy model. I agree that it’s never going to happen but I wonder if it could be run alongside the existing pathways, catering for players who are not quite good enough to stay in a Prem academy but don’t want to give up on the dream in the hope they are late developers.

The Saints-Bedford ‘merger’, as Blues’ CEO calls it, should be the model to follow in the short to medium term until (if) the Champ clubs can become a self-sustaining pro league.

The Ealing-Brunel link up does look to be very interesting and potentially very productive.

Aligning a Prem club with a championship one was what Nigel Melville proposed some years ago. Sounded a good idea at the time and still does to me.

Nothing new under the sun. Feeder clubs and all that.

Wasn't this Jack Hylton's idea?

(I will confess I don't know if that counts as a niche reference or just downright obscure, but I'm good with it)

Being reported that promotion and relegation will cease after next season for at least 4 years

Does sound like Griffiths is thinking big and radical, and will therefore be completely ignored. As a big fan of the NFL and NBA, the excitement and equalising qualities that a draft bring are genuinely brilliant, and I think would bring a real point of difference.

BBC reporting that the RFU are open to the Griffiths/Champ plan.

Mellsblue wrote:BBC reporting that the RFU are open to the Griffiths/Champ plan.

Of course they are. But that's very much like the Conservative party conference being open to a cake-and-eat-it Brexit strategy - it's not exactly them that's the sticking point.

Puja

Puja wrote:

Mellsblue wrote:BBC reporting that the RFU are open to the Griffiths/Champ plan.

Of course they are. But that's very much like the Conservative party conference being open to a cake-and-eat-it Brexit strategy - it's not exactly them that's the sticking point.

Puja

If the RFU pull funding from the academies then the clubs will find their bank managers poking them with very sticky point.

Mellsblue wrote:

Puja wrote:

Mellsblue wrote:BBC reporting that the RFU are open to the Griffiths/Champ plan.

Of course they are. But that's very much like the Conservative party conference being open to a cake-and-eat-it Brexit strategy - it's not exactly them that's the sticking point.

Puja

If the RFU pull funding from the academies then the clubs will find their bank managers poking them with very sticky point.

While I'm aware this may elicit peals of laughter considering who my club is, isn't there some kind of contract to prevent them just pulling funding?

Puja

Puja wrote:

Mellsblue wrote:

Puja wrote:
Of course they are. But that's very much like the Conservative party conference being open to a cake-and-eat-it Brexit strategy - it's not exactly them that's the sticking point.

Puja

If the RFU pull funding from the academies then the clubs will find their bank managers poking them with very sticky point.

While I'm aware this may elicit peals of laughter considering who my club is, isn't there some kind of contract to prevent them just pulling funding?

Puja

You’d have thought so but I’d guess there would also be an end date/break clause or similar. There’s also an imminent change to the EPS terms which will be a lot less lucrative to PRL....