London Irish

I'm not sure that's an adequate reason for kicking National League and lower  teams in the teeth just because they have been prudent in their financial management.

As has been said earlier, the French model of proof of financial stability before the season starts and monthly management accounts submission with appropriate points deduction for late delivery has to be the way forward.

You cannot keep teams afloat just because they're fashionable, what message does that send to clubs lower down the leagues? Who decides who is deserving of support? Certainly not new kids on the block like Worcester, Exeter, Sale and Newcastle.

The whole thing is a ducking mess and the current RFU management are not the ones to sort it out.

(I see that the FFR are setting up a third professional league - how do they do it?)

With the French success in Football and Rugby we must be a bunch of lardy ar5es 

Meanwhile the American Teachers' Pension fund a.k.a. CVC just sit and wait to pounce

Or somebody pull the plug on the RFU .. more to the point

Much as it pains me to say it, as the supporter of a club that was royally shafted (though not as badly as some) by the transition to professionalism, the RFU as they are now are a symptom, not the cause of the problems. Well they're the cause in that their abject surrender to putative club owners in 1995 set us on the path we've been on for the past nearly 30 years, but that involved virtually nobody that's still in a position of power now. 

Fran Cotton had the right idea - the clubs should have been stood up to and told they simply weren't part of the pro future. The Irish did it, remember the IRFU putting Garryowen firmly back in their box and telling them the future was the provinces...

You cannot save clubs who were run badly just because we like them, if they have no solid base, then like London Welsh or Rugby Lions, you start again at the bottom. You cannot keep rewarding failure, Wasps have been failing for over a decade are not likely to ever get out of that rut they find themselves in. Worcester were a different situation, but due to the administrators accepting an unsuitable bid(why that was legal who knows), they too at present have no means of being able to finance. Wasps have been careering towards oblivion right since the game went pro, big ambitions, but even when they were Champions, they still could not sustain themselves. When the game went pro some clubs had a look and said "no thanks" Orrell spring to mind as one, some like Wasps thought they could do it, but underestimated the task and over estimated their own ability to function as a business.

You look at their current plans to be back at the top and have a ground with over 20k seating in under 5 years, deluded, they couldn't make it work when they actually had a ground, how will they finance all of this? They will put other clubs financial position in jeopardy, just as much as Saracens did by over paying players and forcing up the expectations of players and fans.

The RFU jumped into bed with Secure Trading to sponsor the 7s. Did not do "fit and proper" tests, just looked at the £ sign, took money and a few lunches. Got paid on year 1, missing year 2 to 5 , company goes to the wall owing the RFU 4 years money and England 7s go to the wall with it, hence why its now GB 7's . but that all got brushed under the carpet! Why, because they had to save face and could not let that out the bag and god forbid somebody at the RFU be found responsible for it and have to carry the can. They were even wearing ST on the front of the shirts 9 months post the company going belly up, Joke!

Bit like Wasps coming back in the Champ, what suits them is fine!

The RFU cannot afford another Prem club to go, they will prop this up any way they can.

Otherwise they will have a 10 team league with 9 home league games over a 32 week season. Because they won't let anybody from the Champ into the Prem Club. Take Jersey, good enough for England to train at, good enough for the RFU to throw money at to make sure its up to standard for England to spend weeks at training, but not good enough for the Prem, why because they dare not have an outsider in the Prem Club! 

Then you tell me what club in the world can keep afloat with 9 home league games as income, throw in a max of 4 for Europe and then a cup that nobody will pay full price to watch. The whole lot comes down like a pack of cards if Irish go I'd say!