Champ clubs demand divorce payment from RFU over Prem franchise plan
The Rugby Football Union is facing the threat of legal action from Champ clubs if the RFU Council approves a proposal from the Prem to become a franchise league with no promotion from the second tier.
Morning Wire has learned that the Champ Rugby board held an emergency meeting with clubs last week at which they resolved to pursue a “divorce payment” from the RFU should the Council pass the motion at its next meeting in February.
The second tier clubs appear resigned to a new franchise system being approved but are adamant that moving to a closed league constitutes a breach of the Men’s Professional Game Partnership, a £264m agreement between the RFU and the clubs governing funding and player release.
A new eight-year MPGP was signed in September 2024 which still has six and a half years to run.
The 10 Prem clubs are due to receive £3.3m a year from the RFU for the first four years of the MGMP before a profit-sharing agreement kicks in for the remaining four years.
The Champ clubs only receive £133,000 each season, a major cut on the £650,000 they were getting a decade ago, but the MGMP does offer the prospect of promotion via a two-match play-off between the winner of the second tier and the Prem’s bottom team on the proviso they meet its minimum standards criteria. Promotion would be removed for five years if franchising is approved.
”A key part of the PGP is maintaining the pathway and bridging the competitive gap between the divisions, so this is a clear breach,” a Champ source said. “The RFU and the Prem are disconnecting from the rest of the game.
“They will do what they want ultimately, but there will be consequences. They can go out on their own, but they can’t take our money.
“There will be a divorce payment, and it better be a good one. We will use all means necessary to secure appropriate funding for the clubs.
“If the Prem detaches from the clubs below there will never be another professional franchise in this country. No-one can afford to invest without the possibility of promotion. The game will not accept this without a fight, and the consequences will be pretty major.”
The Prem would like to expand from 10 to 12 clubs by 2030, with hopes of the reborn clubs at London Irish and Wasps returning to the top-flight, but the mechanism for achieving that remains uncertain.
Ealing Trailfinders are currently top of the Champ, but their Trailfinders Stadium in west London does not meet the Prem’s minimum standards criteria while Doncaster Knights, who passed the audit last year, are currently 10th and unlikely to reach the end-of-season play-offs.
Worcester missed the 1 December deadline to submit their application to be considered eligible for promotion this season, and any attempts to request an extension are likely to be rebuffed by the RFU.
Suitors baulk at NBA Europe buy-in price
The NBA is facing an uphill battle to sell franchises in its proposed NBA Europe competition due to launch in October 2027, with many interested parties baulking at the asking price of between $500m and $1bn.
While the tender process will not formally begin until next year, the NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his deputy, Mark Tatum, have been actively lobbying football club owners to make a bid, with Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona among the prime targets.
The NBA wants to create a 16-strong European league, in collaboration with world governing body Fiba, comprising 12 permanent franchises, with four other places available through qualifying.
Any football clubs who buy a franchise as founder members would have permanent status, but demands for $500m-plus when the auction begins will be swiftly rebuffed.
One source with knowledge of the initial negotiations told Morning Wire that Barcelona had responded to an approach by telling the NBA that they should be paid to lend their brand to the project rather than paying a franchise fee.
Raine hired by Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia has appointed the Raine Group, which earlier this year raised £520m for English cricket by selling 51 per cent stakes in the eight Hundred teams, to run the sale of eight Big Bash franchises.
The New York-based bank has already held talks with several Indian Premier League owners who were unsuccessful in their bids for a Hundred franchise. They include the owners of Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who failed in their attempts to buy Trent Rockets and Manchester Originals respectively.
The Cricket Australia sales process is expected to begin following the conclusion of this season’s tournament in February and follows a recommendation from the Boston Consulting Group (BBG), which was appointed as a strategic advisor last year.
BBG also recommended structural changes to the 15-year-old tournament, including putting the start date back a fortnight to 26 December to reduce the overlap with Australia’s Test summer.
PTPA row costs ATP $15m
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has spent around $15m this year on legal fees in their ongoing battle with the Novak Djokovic-founded players’ union, the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA).
The PTPA filed a 163-page lawsuit in New York accusing the sport’s governing bodies of operating a cartel to suppress prize money, maintaining an unsustainable tournament schedule and abusing players’ rights and wellbeing.
The union has been seeking an increase in prize money and greater consultation with the players over tournament scheduling since being formed by Djokovic and others in 2020.
An interim judgement from a New York court last summer ruled that the ATP could not retaliate against players who participated in the PTPA’s antitrust lawsuit, and last month the Tour launched a motion to dismiss the claim.
That will be considered by the court next year, with the only immediate outcome from the case being to diminish the ATP’s resources that the players are seeking to access.