New English Professional Game Partnership

The Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and The Rugby Players Association have co-created a new Men’s Professional Game Partnership (MPGP) after 18 months of collaboration.

The eight-year partnership aims to create world-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues with players and fans at the heart of it.  

Improved Governance, Funding, Stabilisation and Cost Alignment  
To lead this partnership into the next era, a new Professional Rugby Board (PRB) has been established to replace the Professional Game Board so that all rugby decisions are brought under one roof to oversee the strategy. The PRB will have an independent chair and two further independent members.  

The RFU and Premiership Rugby will each have three voting members including the RFU’s newly appointed Board Member Wayne Barnes. The RPA will have two seats on the new Board (one voting and one observer) to ensure that players are central to decision making for the professional game.
The funding deal is across two four-year cycles with a guaranteed £33m per season for the first cycle, moving to a profit share in the second cycle of 26% of the RFU’s Profit Before Rugby Investment (PBRI).

A number of joint initiatives to grow revenues and manage costs in the overall system, include;

The Men’s Professional Game Partnership has a vision to create ‘World-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues delivered through a fully optimised performance system in partnership with our players’. Fundamental to this vision are the changes to professional rugby system that have been agreed:  

Enhanced England Playing Squad (EPS): the England Head Coach will be able to select up to 25 players into the Enhanced EPS, ensuring optimum preparation for key international fixtures, and will have the final say on all sports science and medical matters relating to the management of Enhanced EPS players.  

England performance pathway: to provide improved international playing opportunities and a link to the senior men’s team, the U20s EPS squad will be expanded to 50 players and there will be up to four England A matches per season, with the squads drawn from the Senior and U20 EPS squads, with the opportunity to bring in additional U23 players if required.

Player welfare and management: there is a continued commitment to world-leading player welfare initiatives through collaboration and joint investment, including the use of aligned welfare and performance data systems for all players, clubs and England teams, underpinned by audited and sanctionable minimum standards/regulations. A jointly implemented Athlete Management System (AMS) will be introduced across clubs and England to better integrate, standardise and report on welfare and performance data.  

Academy structure: reflecting the new structure of the Gallagher Premiership, the academy boundaries have been redefined, aligned to the Premiership clubs alongside a Yorkshire academy which will continue to be RFU operated under authority of the PRB. These academies will work with and utilise central data to establish satellite sites to ensure regional coverage with an ambition for access with reduced travel time for players.

Pathway changes: the academies will deliver a redefined phased approach to the player development system, starting at U15 and encompassing three phases: Foundation (ages 15 to 16), Development (ages 17 to 18) and Confirmation (ages 19 to 20). Each Academy will ensure that at least two State School / College partnerships are established, developed, and appropriately resourced to be able to participate in the RFU schools’ competition. 

Community: All parties are working together to co-create a joint community game programme that will align with the priorities emerging from the RFU’s Community Game Future strategy and will build on the success of Project Rugby to continue to make the game more inclusive (the joint initiative from Premiership Rugby, in collaboration with the RFU and Gallagher that focused on engaging disadvantaged young people with Rugby Union).  

Player Support Fund: All three parties will establish a Player Support Fund, which will be administered and supported by Restart, the official charity of the RPA. The fund will initially focus on medical support for retiring players, mental wellbeing support for current and retired players, as well as providing a safety net for players and staff affected by unforeseen club situations.

Promotion and Relegation 
The RFU Council agreed there would continue to be a two-match home and away play-off between the bottom placed Gallagher Premiership club and the winner of the Championship/Tier 2, provided that that latter club meets the Minimum Standards Criteria in place at the relevant time. This continues to allow for promotion and relegation, but also balances the careful financial challenges of clubs in those leagues and ensure that promoted clubs can sustainably compete.