Ealing Welsh Trailfinders

I want promotion and relegation, I want clubs having the chance, my old club might get such a chance this year if we can keep the performances going, but we cannot end up bankrupt doing it. A five year plan was put in place to include facilities, the old wooden club house was replaced with a more suitable modern building, which is actually bringing in income to try and be sustainable. I don't like what the RFU and PRL are doing, they have always done it, going back to the amateur days when clubs like Worcester and Exeter would kept firmly in their place, the old school ties made sure no upstarts could join the elite, it has to change. However just saying there is only one criteria is over simplifying it, but the people running the show have to step in and help clubs like Ealing, Jersey, Donnie, Coventry, any of these clubs. I'm hoping the 2 leagues of 10 teams will give the help and funding to get clubs on a more equal footing and not on a basis of if your face fits.

It initially sounded like the other way round, but Mike Gooley has recently created a new legal entity called London Trailfinders Rugby Limited, so it would sound like the process of losing the Ealing identity has started.

I’ve asked this question before and been shot down, but are we certain Mike Gooley is passionate about having an Ealing team playing top flight rugby, or he is passionate about a Trailfinders team? Because this series of events appears to indicate the latter.

Ealing really need to carefully consider their next move here. I think it’s ludicrous they’re being denied promotion, but if they go down this route I’m not sure what the long term plan is. There is no going back as if Ealing ever wanted to rejoin the RFU they would need to start from the bottom and even if they do initially play their games in Ealing, you’ve got to think this would be temporary and that eventually they would relocate back to Wales. If they’ve got the money, I would be focusing this and their efforts on a legal challenge with the RFU/PRL cartel.

Having been there many times when Park and Ealing were in the same league the latter have moved on and upwards. They have built an academy with some real outreach and without the backing of the RFU as they don’t get the Premiership academy status.

There seem to be a lot of strange views on here about why they don’t simply groundshare or why didn’t they nail the planning. Planning in London is a minefield and I doubt they’d have even got close to an initial decisio within the RFU’s deadlines. Groundshares yield very little cash to the clubs that go down that route.

They may not have hoards of fans compared to the existing Premiership clubs but they won their league last year and might well win it again this year. The Premier League changed its rules on grounds to accommodate smaller clubs that had won promotion. The French don’t make up barriers to teams trying to break into their second tier or who win promotion into the Top 14.

Whether it’s Ealing or Jersey that win I hope they take on the cartel. 

If they move into the URC and play games out of the current ground and attract increased crowds they would have to develop VW to deal with them. However the club does not seem to be working on this element. I can understand not wanting to meet the absurd Premiership ground conditions and timings but do they have plans to do something halfway?

Is there an intention to take games back to Swansea X times a season and make use of that larger ground for bigger games?

I suppose it will all come out in the wash but the drop feeding of news and plans must be disconcerting to the Ealing  (and Ospreys) supporters. 

Notwithstanding issues with the RFU (or indeed WRU) this is starting to feel, yet again, like rich men with expensive toys doing what they want. 

We've already got the debacle of Worcester/Wasps/Stoubridge/Worcester RFC (to say nothing of potentially Mose and Cov) being affected by an attempt to move chess pieces around in the West Midlands, so I suppose we just have to suck up an Ealing/Ospreys/Neath/Swansea/whoever else outbreak elsewhere.

Though I must admit I struggle to see many people in Ospreys land being on-board with any attempt to move their team/games to London. 'Saved' by the English...

God forbid we go back to the dark days of closed fixture lists, but if you're a rich man wanting to take a club on a journey, how about thinking more carefully about which club (and indeed ground) you buy?

But that would mean clicking on a link to the Heil.

No thankyew.

Sorry! I’ve just soaked my hands in bleach to get the stench off 😂

And in more developments, as of today, London Trailfinders Limited has changed its name to IHBSAO Limited, and continues to have Ben Ward as a director, but Mike Gooley no longer has control of that company.

London Trailfinders Rugby Limited (previously called Conflict Ltd.) has changed its name to London Trailfinders Limited as of today. Sir Mike Gooley continues to be the controller, and is a director.

(all from Companies House)

Probably got it all from here 

The bit they have control over, AIUI, is *all* professional rugby (and indeed competitive rugby) played within the territorial borders of the RFU's area.

So if Mr Gooley bought Ospreys and Ospreys were playing in Wales there'd be no problem. But if he bought Ospreys and they tried to play even a one-off match in England then his fight would be not just with the RFU, but with World Rugby, whose rule it is, and every other national union in the world looking to protect their privileges. 

I mean, I know he's got money and he doesn't like the RFU, but that would be, er, brave.

AIUI/IIRC