As an Ealing fan (but without any official club connection), I and the other folks who I have spoken to are baffled. Surely, the criteria were known well ahead of time. The ground as-is should be at 5000 capacity, and getting planning permission is not an impossibility. If they didn't want to start the digging next year, then they could have had one season in the prem, then dared the RFU to kick them out. Much harder to chuck someone out than to keep the door shut in the first place. Really disappointed by this, and I can't see it helping to improve morale at all ahead of a tough block of games.

It must be a hard pill to swallow Gerg. TBH we knew that the ground (although it can hold 5k plus) wasn’t ‘licensed’ as such. Inquisitive surrounding how the safety checks etc panned out and planning for 10k+1 (which was likely the big sticking point)

I am in agreement the capacity regulation is ridiculous but is this the only blocker for Ealing? Hope you get the answers bud

Do Knights have the finances as well to build, or is it just the planning permission required, without proving source of finance?

I see what you mean. Obviously promotion would be an exciting achievement, but looking at the Prem at the moment it might be a poisoned chalice. As you say, things are very much stacked against any club breaking the cartel, and getting to the Premiership, as financially they are at a massive disadvantage.

Are you sure, I thought we were having an ever expanding Championship.

A cynic would say, no relegation is to stop LS from threatening to head North.

Digging around tonight, I have heard a rumour that Ealing council was very late delivering a safety certificate.

You’re not the only person to have said this and I myself suspect this is the case. 

Saturated area and all that. 

Ealing have dodged a bullet. The Premiership is a disaster financially and I suspect that probably most owners of Premiership clubs wish they could somehow get out with honour intact. However, that isn't easy to do.......pull the plug and opprobrium awaits........as countless fans rage against the demise of their club.......largely unaware of the financial sacrifice being made by the owners year on year. 

It must be one of the most corrosive, stomach wrenching of experiences knowing that you are involved in a failing enterprise with very little prospect of self sufficiency ...........

The RFU must now be running round in ever decreasing circles trying to resolve the following problems.

A few months ago I was talking to my brother in law Big Higgy about promotion and relegation. Big Higgy is more a football man (well Tranmere Rovers if that counts) than a rugby guy. He was amazed by Caldy's success and equally incredulous that the league structure below the Premiership had no idea of how promotion and relegation would be determined this season.

Initially Big Higgy didn't believe me when I told him how fluid and uncertain this still was half way through a season. His reasoning was that surely no governing body would ever let such a scenario persist beyond the start of the season........I explained to Big Higgy that this season wasn't an aberration, it was a regular occurrence. Promotion and regulation within the RFU league structure was whimsical and arbitary depending on the prevailing winds and whether anyone remained at the RFU who had a passing interest in rugby below the Premiership and the International game.

Big Higgy was utterly gobsmacked and the conversation then turned to the simpler and more readily understood matter of the origins of Covid

I don't think Quins would want to leave the Stoop and drop down into the Championship!

(More seriously why on earth would anyone want to amalgamate with the basket case that is London Scottish?)

I have not noticed any big favours being lavished on the Knights by the RFU, if we were a preferred option would we not get something along the lines of the Yorkshire Academy being directly affiliated to the club, or perhaps some other options to increase income generation? The Knights do have ambitions but I believe they will have to get there the hard way, just like any other aspiring club that wishes to have a Prem berth

castleparknight - are you sure you are not going to get the Yorkshire Academy? I know rumours are the bane of rugby union in its current state, but there are plenty of people convinced that the deal is ‘ in the bag’ and it’s a done deal.  Until your owners deny it or comment on it, the rumours will persist.  

strikes me as a poisoned chalice - you've really got to get promoted asap in that position otherwise you're paying serious money hand over fist (academies aren't free to the clubs that have them) to develop players for the premiership clubs with no transfer fees.

much of RU is the economics of the madhouse but that way, madness really does lie.

Those rumour’s cropped up a couple of seasons ago - I suspect that is all they are. RFU academies appear to be the domain of Prem clubs and as such we don’t fit. I think those lads at Yorkshire RFU academy would probably benefit from being affiliated to a Yorkshire professional club and I think the Knights would develop these lads but not our call, maybe one day but for now rumours are just that.

Point of Order.

Since the demise of Leeds, the RFU have badly needed a Yorkshire club to step forward and fill the geographical map. The RFU need a premiership club from Yorkshire much more than they need another London-based club (Ealing). 

Did I say anywhere that London Scottish were doing anything contrary to the rules? Answer - no.

Did I say anywhere that London Scottish were at fault for the promotion of other clubs hitting the buffers? Answer - no.

I think it is your post that adds nothing to the topic except a strawman of course.

At this point Wasp doesn’t have a squad - so will they be able to recruit a Championship winning squad before September? 

Worcester Wasps!  

I for one feel for Ealing and its fans, been there several times, always enjoyed the welcome.  Put my thoughts elsewhere about what I think.  If Ealing win you should be promoted and given time to develop your stadium further.

Ealing to the URC and 12-team Championship?

Well since they let the Saffas in, who knows what else would be permitted in that URC Wild West?

I'd have thought the Londons Scottish, Welsh and Irish would have been a better fit historically but since Ealing keep getting blocked time after time in the English system, why not have a go outside RFU jurisdiction?

The Welsh will be keen, they need the money.

Ealing and their London location will be a big draw for South African ex pats and I suspect they will get decent crowds . If true it is a very sensible move for all except the Premiership and the RFU........I do hope Caldy follow suit because it would make for some great away trips for the Ravers

I could understand if London Welsh were going that way or LS to SRU . . what a mess!!

...and who is to blame for this mess?

Have you met London Welsh? ;)

Granted that is for historical and cultural purposes but it certainly isn't unheard of!

Julian Clary had a term for this........well and truly like Norman Lamont

Many ascribed the word Heath to Ted Heath the then Prime Minister .......rather than Hampstead Heath which was being used by MPs for certain activities 

Their alternative to the Cricket Test, The Anglesey test. Can you say and correctly pronounce the full long name of Llanfair PG? If you cannot, you are not sufficiently Welsh!

Which do people think is the more likely to actually happen:

1) Ealing become an exiled Welsh club & join the URC?

2) Welsh players to stage a strike and leave Wales unable to play 6N game v England, or field B/C team, on Saturday week?

3) Neither of the above?

If I was allowed to bet, I'd be leaning towards option 3. But interesting stuff nevertheless - never a dull moment in rugby at the mo...

I can sober but struggle when I am asked to say it backwards when Huckleberryly Pear

as asking Mickey Mouse.

I'd suggest a psychiatrist should step in.

Would LS will be relegated? Or would they try to negotiate a deal with the SRU?

I seem to recall a comment that they did not believe they could afford to play without the RFU funding.

And some talk of SRU expanding Super 6.

Is that still on the cards?

In National 1, they would be restricted to three loan players and six Academy players, as opposed to 10 academy players in the Championship. However, the squad size is only 20 not 23.

I fear that I agree with this post. I'd love to see anything besides the status quo happen with Ealing, but honestly the move to the URC would make me a bit sad, as the promotion-relegation system is one of my favorite parts of English sport in general. Mind you, Ealing 100% earned promotion last year on the pitch (by a whisker), so I don't blame them if they do stick two fingers up at the RFU.

* There's a lot of travelling in the URC, so that synergizes well with the Trailfinders brand.

* Possible excuse for away trip to SA.

* Get to match up against top flight teams.

* Thumb in the eye of the RFU

Cons:

* No local derbys.

* Insane travel.

* No Promotion/Relegation

* No RFU funding (not sure what would come centrally from URC)

* URC quality incredibly uneven

Agreed - but the WRU are a basket case as well.

In the words of Private Walker as Captain Mainwaring explains a 17 step plan for attacking a tank

'while Ealing's doing all that, what's the RFU going to be doing?'

Don't they get a say in whether a club in England competes in a 'foreign' competition under the aegis of a 'foreign' union? Or have I dreamed that?

that's what I thought - precisely no incentive for the RFU to sanction it, and it would open the doors to any club in the country that fancied making it's own league, or playing in a different one. We might not like the RFU's take on 'being in control' of English rugby on many and various levels, but this would be them giving up control.

Never mind the 'it would remove the irritation' factor, the bigger picture is that the RFU would be mad to allow it.

IIRC, when LW looked at it it looked like a great idea right up until the bit where the realisation sank in that the RFU would have to agree. And probably wouldn't. 

There was definitely a feeling that 'the RFU will agree just to get rid of us' but IMO the problem is always that this is individual clubs looking for their own escape route and missing the bigger picture that really, however much trouble and individual club causes or is causing the RFU, the RFU really just has to sit there and take it. If they allow one to go then the whole edifice as a governing body collapses.

It's different for the WRU and SRU because they've got many fewer clubs (certainly at pro-level) so need to exist within cross border leagues. But if the RFU stood by and let Ealing go to Wales then that basically opens the door to (e.g.) Leicester deciding they'd be happier in the French league, and negotiating to go there, and so on.

For as long as we've (in England) got leagues operating within English borders at all levels - i.e. competitions other than cups are purely domestic - the RFU would be beyond stupid to sanction any club in England operating outside the RFU structures. It would be the beginning of the end of the RFU. Some people might quite like that, but you can understand why the RFU wouldn't. And it's them that hold the keys. 

AIUI, and I'm more than prepared to be wrong, it works like this: 

- World Rugby/IRB divides the world up into territories each governed by a union.

- all competitive rugby within a territory happens under the aegis of the relevant union, otherwise it's illicit

- therefore, all competitive rugby/pro rugby in England comes under the RFU unless the RFU delegates authority (as happens when the unions agree to cross border competitions)

- so, again AIUI, you simply can't be a WRU club within England unless the RFU agrees.

Quite apart from the more prosaic difficulties like instantly ruling out any English player a top club playing outside the RFU had on its books from playing for England. Ealing (or any other club) would have to count as 'abroad'

For historical reasons, London Welsh are members of the WRU, London Scottish of the SRU, etc.

But, they are also members of the RFU.

Exactly. 

The wider membership had no appetite for this route either 

No existing Premiership club would leave the RFU as they provide the funding which far outweighs any other option and the one thing we know about Premiership clubs is they need the money... 

As for Ealing, I dispair. I fail to understand their model and not getting their ducks in a row for promotion for the second year running and now this daft idea of redrawing the border... Madness. 

There was a London South Africa briefly (and a London Springboks before they merged with Sudbury to be officially Sudbury and London Springboks). They tried to buy their way into the Championship and then tried to buy Wimbledon and rebrand them (where have we heard that before?!). In the end they did well in the lower leagues for a while before mysteriously disappearing in 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_South_Africa_RFC" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_South_Africa_RFC

However, there will still be a sizeable crowd and the Blues team is as good as we can field against a Doncaster side that needs a couple of points to seal a place in the next round, so they will be well up for it.  

The prem can go hang, give me a home (and away) match every week from September to May by increasing the size of the Championship to fit.  Is that too much to ask?

No it isnt

As others have said look no further than National League 1 & 2. A very good standard of rugby all played Saturday at 3 o'clock or there abouts.

In my opinion the Championship has had an identity issue for years. Watching the Championship since Hartpury joined we've had the relegated side from the Prem almost certain to go back up along with a side who broke the rules and was going back up whatever, mixed with a few full time clubs chasing a place at the top table that never comes. Then you have the ever presents like Bedford & Nottingham along with the likes of Pury, Scottish & Richmond looking over thier shoulder to avoid the relegation if there is relegation.

A Premiership with an odd number of teams? Something wrong there.

I'd also add knowledge of how promotion and relegation will operate before the season starts. 

Not that this is just a Championship problem of course. More a problem of any league administered by the RFU.  

You're lucky with Championship at Bedford & Ampthill, Cambridge in National 1 not too far and Bedford Athletic in lower leagues.

I'm happy with National 1 standard, although it would be great to have a knockout Cup Competition with Championship clubs as a measure.

Be great to have England Counties touring again!

I blame the East Stand overspend of £25m+

They'll be moving to the URC i bet. It's been on the horizon for the club since 2019.

Ealing withdrew legal action last year on a promise that a practical solution would be found. Yet what was agreed was simply a reiteration of the previous 10,001 criteria, with the minor concession that actual construction might be delayed by a season if planning permission was in place. No prospect of sustainable phased ground expansion over time.

Whatever one’s feelings about Ealing’s low crowds and lack of market for a further Premiership Club in West London, I say good luck to them if they are finally going to take the Premiership’s protectionist and anti-competitive methods on in the courts. It is time these things were put to the proof.

I’m sure I read last year that they’d taken on some very expensive counsel and were in a great position to take on PRL and the RFU. Then they dropped the threat and we had the quotes from the RFU about the need for sustainability which looked like a move in the right direction.

In the aftermath of the Wasps and Worcester debacle and the RFU’s hounding in front of the DCMS their adherence to a (largely) unchanged set of criteria doesn’t sit well with the wider rugby-supporting and sporting public.

I hope Mike Gooley wipes the floor with them. When Bournemouth secured promotion to the Premier League and their lovely (little) ground didn’t meet the League’s minimum standard rules the League rewrote the rules.

I’m wary of creating conflict with RFU/PRL, not exactly great grounds for constructive ongoing relations. I suspect there are some real safety issues of building a 10k+1 stadium due to the limited access at Vallis way and maybe they just want to break the requirement so that 5k becomes the new minimum. 

Merging with a Welsh region is surely a negotiation tactic. None of the mainstream outlets have picked up the story so I take it with a pinch of salt. 

I’m delighted Donny have been approved though, hopefully it will give them some added impetus to make the step up. Although who knows what the league structure will look like in the next couple of seasons. 

I remarked to my husband this morning that said meeting could be interesting. Particularly with the more outspoken leaders in the Championship, thinking especially of my own club Nottingham- Mr Bow isn’t exactly the shy and retiring type when it comes to subjects like this and it will be very interesting to see what the verdict is. 

As for Ealing, I read the column in the Rugby Paper too and I have to agree with hoping that Sir Mike and his big scary London lawyers wipe the proverbial floor with the RFU. About time someone stood up to them. 

Fully agree that there should be a legal challenge but won’t the RFU counter with, we reduced the minimum criteria to 5k and Ealing haven’t met this basic criteria.

More chance of the JERSEY RED RUSCKIES. with your Russian connections .