English clubs’ boss
Mark McCafferty recently labelled the prospect of Ealing Trailfinders being
promoted from the Championship to the Premiership a cause for “concern”.
McCafferty’s comments were prompted by Ealing’s busy
transfer business this summer, with 30 players coming in and 23 leaving the
club as they continue their transition from a fully amateur club just over ten
years ago to being one of the Championship’s biggest teams.
Ealing were beaten by London Irish in the opening game of
the season, but are expected to push them all the way in the Championship this
season.
___
“A Resistance to
Change”
Just why McCafferty thinks it’s acceptable to single out
Ealing is bizarre. His motives are clear: Ealing don’t have a Premiership
academy, don’t have a stake in Premiership Rugby Limited, and aren’t in the
Premiership’s long-term plan for a 14-team League (these teams are all the
current Premiership sides, plus Ealing’s aforementioned fellow Championship contenders).
But for him to actually openly reveal this is not only
reflective of a resistance to change that runs through the core of the
governance of England’s top flight, but of the corporation’s sheer ignorance.
Effectively, it’s like saying that all that counts is money
and not the team’s ability to play top flight.
Imagine Richard Scudamore (Premier League Boss) saying that
he’s unhappy that Cardiff, on a limited budget, have been promoted. However,
Wolves being promoted, who have plenty of spending power, is a great thing.
What the Premiership cannot currently grasp is that fans
want to see exciting promotion and relegation battles. They want all fans to be
able to dream and that if teams earn that right they should be granted it.
___
Winning the League
May not be Ealing’s only battle
With so many new ins and outs, it is still difficult to see
Ealing winning the Championship. But even if they do, the promotion process is
far from complete.
Guy Armitage is one of many big names that Wasps have brought in
The example of London Welsh shows the true intentions of the
Premiership. Not just passively warning about smaller teams being promoted, but
actively stopping them.
In their first premiership stint, the League saddled them
with legal costs due to a court battle with Premiership Rugby Limited where the
company had a flimsy case to oppose Welsh's promotion. This prevented them from
signing the talent they needed and ultimately caused them to make an
eligibility mistake resulting in a fatal deduction of points.
They then failed to provide them with any kind of support,
as they were promoted again, into a League where all the other teams had reaped
benefits from massive TV deals for the last two seasons. The inevitable
happened; and Welsh were relegated with a solitary point, picked up after they
scored four tries against Bath on week two.
That led to them folding as a club, which makes it all the
more insulting to Welsh when he tried to use them in support of his argument.
"We saw it with London Welsh. Ultimately, it can do the club a lot of damage if they have unrealistic expectations."
What rugby fans in England would call hopes and dreams, the
governing body has the cynicism to call ‘unrealistic expectations.’
It’s almost as if the Premiership is a cartel designed to
protect the 13 or 14 clubs it actually likes.
___
And Clubs in the
Premiership are no better
If all the clubs in the Premiership were a beacon of
financial success, credibility could possibly be attached to the argument. But
that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In the professional era clubs have: gone into
administration, relocated by 100s of miles, been bailed out, cut half their
squads and two have actually gone under as a result of the expectations of the
Premiership
Take Wasps, who bought a stadium (78.6 miles from where
their previous home was) that they couldn’t afford on the assumption they’d
eventually make their money back, and are still spending huge amounts on
players every season. Quins, losing £8 million every year, have the same plan
for the future.
Bath, Bristol and Saracens are backed solely by wealthy
benefactors and would completely collapse if they pulled out. Newcastle hadn’t
sold out their stadium for 20 years until last season, Worcester are up for
sale. I could go on forever.
____
The one club that are making a profit are a team that until
2011 had never ever been in the top flight. Exeter have gone into the League,
survived, got into Europe, got into the play-offs, won the League and topped
the table.
With no stake in Premiership Rugby Limited, no-one was in
the powers that be was happy to see them promoted and yet, now, the same people
laud them for their incredible journey.
And it is an incredible journey. As much as every other
team’s fans want to hate Exeter, with their annoying chants and the painful simplicity
of their play, there is so much admiration.
They’ve gone into the Premiership, and are now, along with
Saracens, running the show.
The story of Exeter will always give the likes of Ealing,
Doncaster and Cornish Pirates hope, in spite of the lack of help and support
the Premiership give.
____
Hopefully the
Premiership will realise what the fans want, but it’s hard to see
Quite how McCafferty thought opening his mouth on this issue
was a good idea is baffling.
His worst line however, was without doubt this one:
"Just to be very clear, I don't know the Ealing set-up and I don't know the people there.”
An admittance of his ignorance. Indeed, I should say now
that I myself don’t know the Ealing set-up and people there.
But rather than being an executive at a governing body, I’m
an amateur journalist trying to balance it with a University degree.
Ealing hit back from their opening-day defeat to Irish with a bonus point victory at London Scottish
In response, Ealing Director of Rugby Ben Ward was there to say what
we were all thinking:
"With reference to the comments about not knowing our set-up, it would be great for Premiership Rugby to get more involved with the Championship to see us develop and help clubs who have the ambition to make the next step."
Echoing his words, I’m hopeful that
eventually the Premiership will realise that no fans want a closed shop, and
that English sport has always been built on having a pyramid of Leagues where
any club from anywhere should, if they perform, be allowed to reach any level.
English Rugby fans don’t want five
games a year in the USA, they don’t want their clubs to be forced into spending
money they don’t have and what they certainly don’t want is the Premiership to
be a closed shop.
Something needs to change for this to be realised. The sooner the Premiership Clubs sell the company, the better.
Comments
Post a Comment