'RFU deal would cut our funds by 50%'

CHAMPIONSHIP clubs would be nearly 50 per cent worse off in real terms if they agree to the Tier 2 funding model currently proposed by the RFU.

- JON NEWCOMBE

After months of waiting, Championship clubs have finally been given some concrete figures around the investment the RFU plan to put into a new-look, franchise-based competition, and it's fair to say they don't add up to much.

Nottingham chairman Alistair Bow said: "We received a letter which tried to explain what the funding would be for the transition year (2024/25) and then if we signed up for Tier Two. There is operational funding, there is player development funding and there is the commercial growth funding.

"We believe the commercial growth funding (£1.4million) will go to the governing administration body of the new Tier Two league (for marketing etc.), and £1m for players. That leaves £1.6million.

"It is very much intimated that we will have to pay insurance money from that £1.6million which is around £600k. That leaves £1million.

"So technically, the new Tier Two competition is 50 per cent less funded than where we are today, as we will go from £150,000 a year to £8090,000."

While funding, or the lack of it, has been a bone of contention for a league that had its central income slashed from £640,000 a year pre-Covid, Bow and Championship Clubs' chairman, Simon Halliday, have stressed it is not all about the money.

Championship clubs want fair and equitable funding, "a whole-game" based solution that is founded on meritocracy, with promotion and relegation enshrined within the structure, and to be recognised for the role they play in the player and coach development pathway.