English rugby scraps relegation until 2024 but chiefs insist Premiership is not being ringfenced
English rugby chiefs have scrapped relegation from the Premiership until 2024 as part of wide-ranging reforms to the game.
The pausing of relegation and expansion of the Premiership to 14 teams is designed to stem the losses suffered by most clubs and exacerbated by the pandemic, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said.
But the RFU insist it is only a temporary measure and does not represent “ringfencing” of the top flight.
As was the case this year, next season the winner of the Championship will be promoted to the Premiership without a team dropping out.
Under the new system, there will be no promotion or relegation in 2022-23.
In 2023-24, a play-off will be held between the bottom team in the Premiership and the Championship winner to decide who plays in the top flight.
Beyond that, the plan is to revert to the old system of one team being promoted and one relegated each year.
“This is not ringfencing the Premiership as some have suggested,” said RFU president Jeff Blackett.
“In three of the four seasons covered by this and our previous decision [2020-24], a Championship club will have the opportunity to be promoted.
“Council has control of what happens thereafter and is committed to maintaining the integrity of the league structure by ensuring that access to the Premiership will be retained in the future.”
Changes designed to help ailing Premiership clubs
Premiership clubs borrowed £88m from the government last year to cope with losses caused by Covid-19.
Teams were already losing money – £40m in 2017 and £50m in 2018 – in an unsustainable pattern of short-term investment.
The RFU said the changes would remove the threat of relegation, which costs a club at least £5m, and allow for more long-term planning.
“The changes will undoubtedly benefit the game of rugby in England as we recover from the effects of the pandemic,” Blackett added.
From 2024, the RFU said it intended to introduce a minimum quota of 15 England-qualified players in every Premiership matchday squad.
However, this cannot be rubber-stamped until it has been agreed with other stakeholders in English rugby, such as clubs and players’ unions.