Blueprint for the English game

I know this has been done before, but I have been having a number of chats recently about how the English club game should be structured. From these often booze fuelled discussions, I’ve come up with the following changes. They will never be implemented, but it’s nice to dream!

Calendar
Last weekend of August through to end of October:- 9 league games
November:- Autumn Internationals & 4 cup games
December through to February:- remaining 9 league games & final
February to March:- Six Nations, 4 cup games plus 2 semi-finals and final matches
April to May:- 6 Heineken cup pool games, plus 3 knockout stages

Heineken Cup Qualification
If nations choose to operate within a collective league then qualification should be based up on performance and not nationality. England’s and France’s quota to be increased to 8 sides each. The top 7 sides of league 1 would qualify along with the winner of the cup. All remaining 12 sides would be entered into a second tier European competition.

League
The top 2 leagues restructured to have 10 sides per league. There will be promotion and relegation between these 2 leagues (the bottom side from league 1 and the winner from league 2), but as a whole the 2 leagues will be ring fenced. Membership of this structure will be reviewed every 3 years and will be based on performance and financial stability. The top 2 sides from each league will appear in a final one-off game to determine the winner to be played as a double header format. All league games to be played outside of international windows.

Examples of the leagues would be:
League 1
Leicester
Saracens
Harlequins
Northampton
Gloucester
Exeter
Sale
London Irish
Bath
Worcester

League 2
Wasps
Newcastle
Bristol
Cornish Pirates
Bedford
Leeds
Doncaster
London Welsh
Nottingham
Rotherham

Total games: 18 leagues games + 1 game for final appearances

Cup
A cup competition would be played during the 10 week international period. There will be 4 groups of 5 teams drawn from the 20 sides in the above leagues. Each group side will play home and away teams from their own group. The top team from each group will proceed to the semi-finals with the teams with the highest points total gaining home advantage. The final would be played at a neutral venue. The winner is allocated a Heineken Cup place regardless of which league the team plays in. The second half of the competition will be played after the completion of the league ensuring teams treat the competition seriously to capture the remaining Heineken Cup place. Should the winner already have secured qualification the runner-up will be given the remaining spot. Should both sides secure qualification via the league then the 8th placed side in the league would be given qualification.

Total games: 8 + 2 games for semi-final & final appearances

EPS
The EPS is selected every October to reflect form and availability. 6 changes plus injury replacements can be made in February. 6 changes plus injury replacements can be made in May for any tours.

Every time a player is selected in a round of the EPS £40,000 will be provided as a reward and compensation (a maximum of £120,000pa). £30,000 will go to the player’s registered team (maximum of £90,000pa), £10,000 will go to the Academy that produced the player (maximum of £30,000pa).

Salary Cap
Every side within the 2 tiers would be subject to a £4.3 million salary cap. This cap would be reviewed every 3 years in line with the membership of the leagues. Academy produced players would be exempt from the salary cap, however, this exemption could not be used to take wages over 60% of the club’s turnover.

RFU
Sack Rob Andrew

What do you think?

There are some interesting things in there.

I could see the HC going to 32 teams in the next review as Eng and Fra push for more clubs.
It would be all Rabo plus 10 from the other two but with a line saying that when/if the Rabo increase that it would go up to all members so if it went to 14 teams the Eng & Fra would drop to 9 teams.

I do like the calander but I think I would rather start and end with the league and have the HC in the middle.

On the League as you say it might be better to reduce it to 2 tens but turkeys and Christmas.

The CAP in both leagues will never work nor will the 60%. Some teams in the top league struggle to make the CAP as it is. More wouldn't make the CAP if they disallowed academies.

Sack Rob sounds realy good to

On the cap front, I'll be honest the 60% figure was plucked out of the air. There would need to be a proper study done to look at what figure would be feasible. The cap figure itself should be fine across both leagues. Teams do not have to spend up to that level as many in league 2 probably wouldn't, but it would allow a level playing field.

I did think about splitting the league, but feel if there is too much time between sections the momentum and probably interest would be lost.

One thing that you could do is you keep it as a 12 team league and you play each other once. At the end you split the league into top 6 and bottom six.

They then play each other twice.

It would sort out the HC places quicker and give teams a chance to focus on both. It would also raise the standards of the top teams.

Both mini leagues would be much tighter so alot more to look forward to. You also could bring in a playoff shield for the bottem League.

As a result teams 1-4 playoffs probably at least team 5 would be close up till the end, teams 7-10 playoffs and either 11 & 12 in/and relegation/playoff spots

Then there woulod be no dead rubbers and would help to raise the standard of the league.

Leiscter this year are showing you have open games and still win at the top

RFU
Sack Rob Andrew

What do you think?

I think that Squeeky has been an awful influence for the England first team but his involvement in the bartering of the EPS deal and his overseeing of the age grade progression is good. The RFU did the right thing in restricting his role to everything but the England first team in my view. The EPS gives us more time to prepare the players and the age grade teams are flourishing.

HongKongCherry wrote:On the cap front, I'll be honest the 60% figure was plucked out of the air. There would need to be a proper study done to look at what figure would be feasible. The cap figure itself should be fine across both leagues. Teams do not have to spend up to that level as many in league 2 probably wouldn't, but it would allow a level playing field.

I did think about splitting the league, but feel if there is too much time between sections the momentum and probably interest would be lost.

Your 60% is about right - maybe 55%. I remember reading something about Scottish Football saying 60% was the ratio of player wages to turnover you need for a financial stable club. So would presume that's the same for all sports.

The only issue with splitting the league early that I can see is that it would strongly disadvantage a team suffering from numerous injuries. A decent side may lose key players and be outside of the top 6, yet by the time the league is split the returning players cannot influence qualification - however, it would give them a renewed focus on the cup competition.

I do think it is important where possible to create as many games that are competitive. I don't believe competition causes negative rugby, it's just been in recent years English coaches have been far too conservative and we've not had the players to play attacking rugby. With the current crop of younger players coming through I feel that will change.

Anything. ANYTHING to prevent Club/Country clashes.

Plus any cap should be based on affordability (% of turnover) and not a universal, equal cap. I don't mind a maximum wage cap to keep the teams competitive, but a universal cap encourages nothing but over-extension.

Ask Wasps, Bradford Bulls and any number of major footy teams of the ultimate cost of living the dream, player over-payment and so-called sugar-daddies and their promises which don't materialise and leave their sides ultimately desperately worse off.