Plymouth Albion’s plight raises issue of funding in rugby union’s second tier

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/15/the-breakdown-plymouth-albion-funding-rugby-second-tier

Version 0 of 1.

Plymouth Albion have little more than a week to raise £250,000 or go into administration and be relegated from the Championship. The plight of a club that has tried to pay its way in a division dominated by two sides for whom money is little object, Bristol and Worcester, without in any way trying to match them, has raised the issue of funding in English rugby’s second tier.

The Championship is the impoverished little brother of the Premiership. Its 12 clubs receive £380,000 annually through central funds, money made up of a contribution from Premiership Rugby, television, title sponsors and the Rugby Football Union. It would not be enough to provide a year’s wages for a marquee player in the top flight.

Despite being a breeding ground for the Premiership – players such as Owen Farrell, Dan Cole, Billy Twelvetrees and Joe Marler are graduates – the Championship remains apart from the Premiership, in contrast to France where the top two divisions come under one organisational umbrella with a higher level of funding.

The Championship has an agreement with the Rugby Football Union that runs out at the end of the season. Negotiations are heading towards a conclusion: the clubs have asked for funding to be doubled but any increase is unlikely to go beyond £500,000. Even that extra £120,000 would this season have saved Plymouth from the threat of administration. They issued a notice of administration at the start of the year after being presented with bills, including one for VAT, they did not have the money to pay. Under the regulations, they were allowed to apply for an extra 10-day period before the 20-point deduction was implemented.

Plymouth received an offer of £125,000 from a benefactor but the money would only be made available if the club was able to match it. A fundraising scheme has started, the gate for last weekend’s match against Moseley, which resulted in Albion’s first victory of the season, was some 40% up on the previous one. There is hope where only a few weeks ago there was despair but club officials know, as do those at some of their rivals, that unless the funding issue is addressed, any respite will be temporary.

“All the Championship clubs are saying is that we are grossly underfunded,” said the Plymouth chairman, Graham Stirling. “Extra money must come through otherwise there will be casualties. I did not want us to be the first but we could well be if we cannot save this. There has been a phenomenal response from supporters and the business world and we are doing everything we can to avoid administration.”

The Plymouth club is run by volunteers: even its chief executive is unpaid. Their outlay goes on the wages of players and coaches without any of the extravagance of Bristol: the best paid at Albion would be fortunate to be on 10% of what the top earners at Ashton Gate bank but it was not that long ago that Bristol were finishing eighth in the Championship and struggling off the field to the extent that supporters footed a few bills.

Even though Worcester are vying for promotion with Bristol, their director of rugby, Dean Ryan, believes Plymouth’s plight is a sad reflection on the professional game in England. “We have been doing this for a long time and if we can’t get two leagues that are moving in the right direction financially, as they have in France, it is pretty poor,” he told the Rugby Paper. “A number of Championship clubs are facing real financial trouble: there are no real broadcasting rights or central deal. There needs to be a really good look at the league, which has spent a lot of time managing itself to the lowest common denominator instead of trying to manage itself up. It needs help but I am not sure the RFU is the right body to provide it.”

Geoff Irvine, the chairman of Bedford and the group of Championship clubs, is better disposed to the RFU and its intentions than Ryan. “We got nowhere with the old regime of Francis Baron and Martyn Thomas but since Ian Ritchie has been chief executive there has been an acknowledgement of what our league is doing for the game: for example, England have won the last two Junior World Cups and where do they get their players from?

“The Championship prepares players for the Premiership but take away the few clubs with rich backers and everyone else is having to make do with funding that is not near enough to run a professional club. We have no chance of having a relationship with Premiership Rugby that our counterparts in France have with their top division, a legacy of the days when Tom Walkinshaw was chairman and said he did not want to share any money with us.

“We have some crucial meetings with the RFU in the coming weeks. I appreciate that the talks with Premiership Rugby over a new agreement take priority but after fighting this battle for years I am confident that we are making real progress. We would like the funding to be doubled, and while that will probably not happen, I expect there to be a significant increase that will make a big difference to Championship clubs.”

The present matters to Plymouth more than the future. Their former coach of 10 years, Graham Dawe, returned to the club last week as an unpaid coaching adviser and within days they were celebrating their first victory since March. Albion are still bottom of the division by eight points after a poor season that has nothing to do with their financial plight: there was no mass exodus of players pre-season and the aim at the start was a top-six finish. It was form that precipitated the financial problems, not the other way round.

Plymouth started playing in 1875, merging with Devonport Albion in 1920. They were one of England’s leading clubs in the 1920s and at one time had five England internationals in their ranks. They finished third in the second tier 11 years ago but the rise of Exeter has coincided with Albion’s fall.

“What is happening at Plymouth is a great shame,” said Irvine. “There will be others in the same position unless the funding issue is sorted out. The Premiership would struggle without the Championship, as the RFU recognises. We have to have a minimum of 16 England qualified players in our match-day squads and all we are saying is that we should all have the means to run ourselves professionally, not just those with rich owners.”

• This is an extract taken from the Breakdown, the Guardian’s weekly rugby union email. Sign up here.