Jersey Reds - Administration???

Harvey Biljon has turned up at Rotherham Titans!

WEvans wrote: SK 88 wrote: Bedford Bear wrote: Not as I understood it.  There was loan funding and tax payers money used for grant funding. Well you have misunderstood then.  There were no grants to UK clubs. So taxpayers money used to fund loans not grants then. Less cost to the taxpayer but a cost nevertheless.

Cambridge Chairman has just emailed all members to say that the RFU have confirmed no relegation, with one team promoted from National 1.

There will be no relegation from the Championship. Promotion will require the champions beating the loser of the Premiership in a two-legged play off. 

The chance of promotion is certainly an improvement, but a playoff delegitimises the competition. The winner of the Championship shouldn't have to prove they are better than the loser of the Prem. It is the RFU saying loud and clear they don't think Champiosnhip teams are anywhere near the quality of the Premiership. Which is ironic given why that may be. 

Se7en wrote: I agree with what you say re the bottom of the Champ table being a dead rubber and detracting from the spectacle come crunch time, but I would say it will still be just as exciting at the top of the table for the likes of Ealing, Donny, Cov, if promotion to the Prem is on the cards (if that's what any Champ teams actually want, of course!).  On that point though, unless I'm out of the loop, isn't it still only Donny that would meet the MSC to satisfy the ground requirements for the Prem, or has that been relaxed now?

There was talk (e.g. an article in the Rugby Paper, I think) that Ealing were preparing to take legal action to challenge the minimum ground criteria if they won the league. I did see a post on a law and sport blog (admittedly only by a trainee solicitor and which I can't find now) that gave a plausible argument as to why the criteria were vulnerable to a legal challenge - are they really a proportionate response to a legitimate aim or an unjustified way of restricting competition?

Both the rumours about Ealing's intentions and the comment on the potential merits of a legal challenge may be well wide of the mark. But I did wonder why Ealing, having been given reasons why they failed the previous year, made an application last season without having upgraded their stadium. It seemed at least plausible that they had decided that although suing is never cheap, it might be a less expensive and quicker way to get promotion than rebuilding their stadium. 

Edited by IainS - 19 Oct 2023 at 22:44