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Championship clubs plead for clarity over finances for next season

With just two months until the 2021-22 campaign, clubs remain in the dark about the level of funding it will receive from the RFU and PRL


By Charles Richardson 26 May 2021 • 7:22pm


Frustrated Championship clubs are pleading for clarity from the Rugby Football Union with England's second tier still unaware of the level of funding it will receive for next season.
Budget cuts and the financial side-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have meant that each Championship club received only around £160,000 in central funding at the start of the 2020-21 season, compared with around £600k two years ago. For this season, roughly £90k was funded by the RFU with the remaining £70k coming from Premiership Rugby Limited.
With less than a month left of the current season, however, and with less than two months until England's second-tier clubs reconvene ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, the Championship remains in the dark about the level of funding it will receive from the RFU and PRL.
Telegraph Sport understands that clubs are expecting no increase or decrease in funding, with plans and budgets for next season being made accordingly, and the RFU has confirmed that it aims "to provide certainty over next season’s funding... in the coming weeks".

Alistair Bow, chairman of 10th-place Nottingham, told Telegraph Sport: "There are rumours, but we don't know what funds we are going to see from either the RFU or PRL for next season and beyond.
"Because of the cuts and Covid, we are at Ground Zero, so we now have to budget according to the worst-case scenario. We are assuming, and therefore budgeting, that we're not going to be getting any more money [from the RFU and PRL] than what we're currently getting.
"With Covid still hanging around, it's not just that funding that's going to be hit, but we're going to be budgeting for potentially smaller crowds at games next season because there's no guarantee we're going to be back to full capacity.
"We are semi-pro but I cannot budget for a fully professional squad because there isn't enough income. There is uncertainty of central funding, uncertainty on ring-fencing, uncertainty on the Championship model, Covid; when you've got all those things, you can only budget for what you know. And there are far too many uncertainties."
Bow's counterpart at fifth-place Coventry, Jon Sharp, added that planning for next season is "impossible".
"How can we recruit?" Sharp told Telegraph Sport. "Normally we would start in January but, alongside the pandemic, the continued uncertainty does not help the situation at all."
The lack of funding clarity has not been helped by the Championship clubs having to play matches behind closed doors until last weekend, with money made through ticket sales and hospitality a key source of revenue for the league.
"We did open our gates on Saturday for the Saracens game, but even then that was incredibly restricted - we had 1,400 in the ground," Sharp said. "With all the additional Covid safety measures, if we made any money - I don't know the answer yet - I would be very surprised. I imagine we would have lost money."
Bow and Sharp both argue, too, that if the Premiership were to suspend relegation indefinitely, then PRL should increase the size of their payment to the Championship clubs, which was originally set-up to reimburse the second tier for abolishing their promotion play-offs. The matchday attendance and revenue generated from home matches against the Premiership's relegated side eclipses anything else in the Championship season.
"Playing the Premiership's relegated team with crowds, which we didn't have this season, brings a big income," Bow added. "We would have been full for our match against Saracens - and we were looking at moving it to Meadow Lane (Notts County's stadium). It was worth £70,000 to us, that game; we were forecasting a crowd of up to 10,000."
Sharp added: "If there is any form of ring-fencing then Championship clubs need to be compensated for that lost game against the Premiership's relegated side."
In response, an RFU spokesperson said: "Championship funding is variable and linked to the RFU’s profit. This year the RFU is likely to make a loss of between £30-35m, however we have continued to provide funding to the Championship and have not pro-rated it for a shorter season. The RFU also has a responsibility to support the wider community game and its 1,900 clubs.
"Any decision on promotion to or relegation from the Premiership would require a vote by the RFU council at the end of June... As the discussions are ongoing nothing has been decided."

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Coventry Rugby statement in response to RFU Council announcement (29/06/21)

Posted on 29th June 2021 by Chris Wearmouth



While today’s announcement by the RFU was not unexpected, and the fact that we are fairly sanguine about it, we appreciate the disappointment which many of our supporters will be feeling this afternoon.
The more cynical among our supporters may very well point out that this announcement has been timed superbly, a few days after the best Premiership final in years (coming at the end of a season where there has been no relegation) and in the first week of a Lions tour, when the eyes of the rugby world are focused on South Africa.
There is plenty of detail in the announcement, but some glaring omissions, too, not least in missing out the actual figure of ‘funding’ coming from the RFU and PRL into the Championship, namely £160,000 per club per year, a quarter of the central funding of two years ago and a fraction of the funding which goes into the loss-making Premiership clubs from the RFU.
At no point has the RFU viewed central funding of the Championship as an investment into the future of the sport, preferring instead to support the Premiership clubs in their narrow geographical spread.
It is also interesting to note that only now is the RFU going to begin working on defining the role and purpose of the Championship and NCA leagues; this is long overdue and, in our opinion, should have been undertaken many years ago.
The ‘Covid recovery plan’ has been clearly stated as protecting the investments of Premiership club owners. But at the same time the RFU is asking for the Championship owners to put many millions of pounds to meet as-yet unstated minimum standards criteria on the off chance that automatic promotion may be reinstated in 2025.
So what are our next steps for Coventry Rugby? In a nutshell, we will focus on what we can control and can achieve: –

1. We remain committed to developing Butts Park Arena into a top class and sustainable venue, which provides our supporters with a fantastic day out and our players and tenant clubs with superb facilities
2. We remain committed to developing our Academy and educational pathways, giving opportunities to players cast aside by the Premiership’s Academies
3. We remain committed to our innovative community programmes, which use the power of sport to inspire, whether through helping getting primary school children more active and improving their reading, increasing access to disability sport, and giving disadvantaged children fantastic weeks packed with sport, nutrition and activities
4. We remain committed to building towards our 150th anniversary, showcasing the fantastic history of Coventry Rugby and how we can still contribute massively to rugby in the West Midlands and in England

With all this we will continue to build our income streams, our place in the city and our rugby platform, and when the time is right, we will contest for a place in the top flight.