No relegation

Ooh, Nat 1 aren't going to like that.....

If there is no Relegation from the premiership but one team promoted from the Championship that will reduce the Championship to 11 teams for the following season , so two less games. Unless the Championship decide to look at the restructuring outlines in the recent paper. This would mean promoting the top sides from Nat 1 and the subsequent restructuring of the leagues below. Decisions have to be made soon as if next season goes with the restructuring of Nat 1 and below teams will be going down and then back up again with all the instability that will occur.

marigold wrote: Gerg , Saracens chose relegation rather than open their books, it was not PRL who relegated them. There is no possible fair process for promoting more than the one team from last seasons National One. Given the Championship will not finish until June this season surely it would make sense to delay the start date of next season so having only 11 teams will not be such an issue. Revenue from one less home league game- away games cost a considerable amount of money - will means clubs will have to adjust what they are planning to pay players, something I am sure all of them are having to do given the lack of revenue this season.

Well said - although I would add I believe there should be no promotion at all if a full league championship season is not played.

CPK I do not have access to figures and I imagine for local games you are correct. However  I cannot imagine income from the paying customers, not season ticket holders or freebie tickets, plus actual profit from beer and food sales once staffing costs are taken into consideration for one match would be significantly higher than the cost of travelling to Cornish Pirates or Jersey, at least one night's accommodation and two days worth of food for all the squad and staff would be.

Just to clarify that the claim in TRP is that there will be no relegation from the Prem to the Champ this season...

dropout22 wrote: gerg_861 wrote: A full throated attack on the PRL cartel and the RFU from Coventry's DoR today in TRP as well. He also had quite a go at Donny's DoR for his leadership of the Championship. Made interesting reading, but probably underlines why France now has 3 professional divisions, and England is trying to have just one. Was the MD, but still point still correct. I'm pretty sure England also has the most registered players in the world?

The main difference IMO is financial. For decades French tax law has allowed companies to sponsor/support rugby clubs and gain huge tax exemptions. In addition large numbers of the clubs in the top 3 divisions are provided with grounds/training at incredibly low costs by the local municipalities who own/run these facilities so the club does not have to spend its money looking after these expensive assets. The absence, until recently, of a salary cap has also allowed them to attract any players they wish to afford. I would suggest that the relationship between the clubs ad the union has in France for the most part been worse than that between the RFU and English clubs-note France having to put out a 3rd team in the deciding Autumn international back in November.

will there be a championship season to be promoted from this season

Edited by No 7 - 18 Jan 2021 at 17:23

Taffy wrote: If I understand the premiership reasoning, relegation this season would not be a true reflection of the "on field" result as Covid cancelled matches are awarded points for not playing (currently Gloucester have played all matches and are bottom, opposed to teams above them who haven't played all their). Using this logic (something the RFU are not renowned for) how can European places be decided? If the Championship starts this season and games are cancelled due to Covid will the same points system be used? Surely promotion and relegation from the Championship should be halted this season?