The Football Governance Bill – does Rugby Union need its own independent regulator?

English sport has traditionally followed a model of self-governance. However, times are changing. The Independent Football Regulator is being introduced imminently, and the England and Wales Cricket Board has opted to create its own arms-length regulator. In this series, Clara Hutter and Ben Thomas look at rugby union and ask whether a similar approach to that adopted in football and cricket is required.

Following an unsuccessful Autumn International Series, English rugby union appears to be facing an increasing number of questions about how best to develop both the international and domestic game.

This latest disappointment comes after the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and The Rugby Players Association formally announced[1] the new Men’s Professional Game Partnership (MPGP) on Wednesday 4 September, an eight-year partnership which promises to “reshape the rugby landscape and reset the professional game to support, showcase and fund [the] game for the next decade and beyond.” This announcement regarding the men’s game follows the launch of the new Premiership Women’s Rugby in July 2023, which replaced the previous Premier 15s and was established to deliver a similar ten-year strategy for women’s rugby in England.

English rugby union has been dealing with a range of issues in recent years and fans of the sport have been anxious to hear how they will be resolved going forward. With this in mind, notwithstanding that its impact may not have been immediate, the MPGP proposes plans to address:

• financial difficulties in men’s professional rugby union;
• relegation and promotion between leagues;
• integration between club rugby and the international game;
• player welfare and support; and
• diversity and inclusion within the sport.

Here’s what we know so far.

Financials

The current financial difficulties within Premiership Rugby have been epitomised by the departure of Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish from top tier English rugby in the recent years, and all 10 remaining Premiership Rugby clubs reporting losses in their 2023 financial statements. This has also been a feature of English rugby’s second tier league, the Championship, with Championship clubs looking to be promoted historically struggling to meet the necessary Minimum Standards Criteria (MSC) for joining the Premiership due to the level of the investment required to do so, despite otherwise being eligible for promotion on merit.

To help alleviate these issues, the MPGP includes a funding deal set out across two four-year cycles with a guaranteed £33m per season for the first cycle, moving to a profit share in the second cycle. It also involves the creation of an independent Financial Monitoring Panel (FMP), which is already in operation for the 24/25 season, “to monitor financial stability across Premiership Rugby and provide confidence to clubs playing in any given season.” Nonetheless, issues being faced by Championship clubs appear to remain largely unaddressed by the MPGP and although the RFU’s work over the last 18 months to develop a reimagined Tier 2 is still ongoing, it is not clear how or if this will result in integration or alignment with the new plans for the Premiership.

Movement between leagues

The consequence of Championship clubs being unable to meet the MSC, alongside the effective ring-fencing of the top league to protect Premiership clubs during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been the removal of both the threat of relegation from the Premiership and the promise of potential promotion from the Championship. The consequences of this are:

• The diminishing of rugby’s competitive balance and unpredictability of results.
• Less appeal for those looking to invest into Championship and lower league clubs. Would Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have been drawn to Wrexham AFC without the chance of promotion promising excitement and success (both in a sporting and financial sense)?
• Lost opportunities in terms of ticket sales. The jeopardy of being promoted or relegated has been shown to drive increased ticket sales, especially towards the end of a season, as the potential impact of game outcomes causes greater engagement from fans.

Reassuringly, the MPGP announcement reconfirmed the continuation of a two-match home and away play-off between the bottom placed Premiership club and the winner of the Championship, provided that that latter club meets the Minimum Standards Criteria in place at the relevant time. However, crucially, the MPGP goes further in agreeing increased flexibility to the MSC for entry into the Premiership with promoted clubs being given a longer period to achieve the required ground capacities. The MSC is an important tool for ensuring that suitable facilities are in place to protect player safety and welfare and that a good quality, safe environment is provided for spectators,[2] but the added flexibility will hopefully mean the return of exciting play-off rugby.

Integration in English Rugby

Over the last few years, there has been a lack of integration throughout English national and club rugby at all levels and this is one of the reasons why sponsors and broadcasters may have been less willing to commit to investing in the sport. For example, the lack of an international break in the English Premiership calendar, when many players are away with their national teams, has also meant that broadcasters were likely to be less inclined to invest in showing club games in competition with international matches. Sponsorship and broadcasting provide a large part of a Premiership club’s income, with ticket sales making up the rest. They are therefore key to ensuring financial success and stability going forward.

Alongside Six Nation Rugby’s October 2023 player led reform package, the changes provided for in the MGPG should serve to improve integration across the sport. These changes include:

• a new calendar to be introduced from 2026 onwards which allows for a clearer defined player release window and guaranteed rest periods to ensure player welfare remains a priority; 
• a new Professional Rugby Board (PRB), replacing the Professional Game Board so that all strategic rugby decisions are brought under one roof. 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 and ex-referee 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; 
• a landmark new Joint Marketing Agreement which aims to drive club attendances and grow respective TV audiences and social following; and
• closer alignment and sharing of information to aid player welfare and management across the professional game.

The MPGP also includes the granting of more control to England head coach, Steve Borthwick, over how up to 25 selected players are managed on club duty, with the names of those players having been announced on 25 October 2024. There has understandably been some scepticism to this from those at club level, with the Exeter Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, sharing his concerns that the true effect of this arrangement will only become clear further down the line. However, the RFU has insisted that the new system will “ensure optimum preparation for key international fixtures” and enable “the best players in England” to be “at the peak of their form and in the best shape to play for their country.”  We are yet to see how this will play out in reality, especially in the context of England’s recent losses against New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. 

However, evidence has shown that such measures can be extremely successful, and the French Rugby Union set up is a good case study. France now has three professional leagues, with the Top 14 (the French first division) and Pro D2 (second division) clubs making key decisions jointly and all games in both leagues being shown on TV. This coordinated television coverage drives increased sponsorship and provides greater stability and bargaining power for the clubs. 

Increased funding for French lower leagues means that the resources available to Pro D2 clubs are more extensive, with many having impressive stadiums and there being a requirement for them to have suitable gyms on site. Creating a greater spectacle on game day can in turn increase the motivation of young players seeking to enter the professional game and encourage greater fan engagement and ticket sales even at the lower levels. 

Player Welfare and Support

As part of a continued commitment to world-leading player welfare initiatives through collaboration and joint investment, it was also announced that the MGPG will introduce a jointly implemented Athlete Management System (AMS) across clubs and England to “better integrate, standardise and report on welfare and performance data” and that “a Player Support Fund” will be established jointly by the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and The Rugby Players Association, 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The MPGP promises to be “part of a broader partnership […] that joins and supports all parts of the game, international, domestic, community, players and investors, men and women, boys and girls.” It has also been acknowledged that “the community game benefits from well run and funded academies to allow every young player to fulfil their potential and winning England teams that generate money to reinvest into the whole game.”

As part of this, there has been various reforms made to the way rugby union academies are run and structured. In order to reflect the new structure of the Premiership, the academy boundaries will be redefined and aligned to the Premiership clubs, alongside a Yorkshire academy which will continue to be RFU operated under authority of the PRB. Most notably, it was announced that 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.  

The introduction of the MPGP is an exciting step for Men’s Rugby Union in England and encouragement can be taken in that the major issues effecting the sport appear to being considered at all levels. As these plans are put into place and tested across this current season, fans will have the opportunity to consider the effectiveness of these steps and whether other solutions may be required.

In our next article, we will look at whether an independent regulator in Rugby Union may be desirable, how it may help to reinforce the goals which the MPGP is setting out to achieve, and whether it may serve to encourage further integration between the men’s and women’s games. In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss any topics raised in this article, you can get in touch with our team.

[1] https://www.englandrugby.com/follow/news-media/mens-professional-game-partnership-published

[2] https://premiershiprugby.com/content/rfu-championship-clubs-minimum-standards-criteria

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