RFU given ‘wake up call’ over second-tier clubs’ future amid Cornish Pirates’ contracts concern

Cornish Pirates say they have funding in place to pay players up to January 2025 and are asking for more clarity on central funding and the status of promotion to assure investors – Dan Mullan/Getty Images

The Rugby Football Union has been handed “yet another wake-up call” over the future of English rugby’s second tier after Cornish Pirates confirmed they had only issued contracts until the end of next season.

Pirates have demanded clarity from the RFU on both future funding and promotion to the Gallagher Premiership, stressing that potential investors require assurances in order to commit funds.

Funding from the RFU for Championship clubs has continually been cut in recent seasons, reduced from £600,000 down to £160,000, while no team has been promoted from the Championship since Saracens after the 2020-21 season.

Dicky Evans, Cornish Pirates’ majority shareholder and life president, announced an exit plan back in 2022 due to ill health, giving a final tranche of funding to the club. In a statement last Friday, Evans said contracts have been issued for the 2024-25 season only; deals that include a break clause which can be activated in January 2025.

Evans stressed that funding is in new place for those contracts until that break clause window, with the club expecting “to generate more funds than envisaged in the current budget, to enable us to meet the outstanding amount required for post new year”, while noting “we certainly don’t intend to run out of funds with committed contracts in place á la certain other clubs who went under”, a reference to the recent demises of London Irish, Wasps and Worcester in the Premiership along with Jersey Reds in the Championship.

Regarding the club’s future, Evans added there are two interested “international consortiums” waiting for decisions from the RFU before committing, calling on the governing body to not only favour Premiership clubs “locked in their ivory tower”.

He said: “Understandably new investors need confidence that the RFU backs merit-based promotion and will not carve up the rugby market to favour a handful of Premiership clubs, locked in their ivory tower and allowing no Championship clubs through the door. Those decisions have been delayed again.

“As this season draws to a close, I am determined that, despite needing to vary the terms of their contracts, players and staff have the certainty that they are part of the  Pirates’ future, a future in which we remain a proud Cornish employer and an elite top-flight Championship club. One day, in my lifetime, a Premiership Club. So, it’s down to the RFU to provide a solid foundation on which new investors in this very famous rugby club can base their financial decisions.”

Evans’ statement received strong backing from Championship Rugby chairman Simon Halliday.

“I massively admire Cornish Pirates for the honesty of their statement. It reflects the supreme frustration on behalf of not only Dicky and the Cornish Pirates board, but the Championship at large,” Halliday told Telegraph Sport.

“This has to be yet another wake-up call for the game – we have been saying this for months. We do not yet have enough answers to encourage investors, either prospective or current, that the deal on the table for Championship clubs is a positive result for the whole game.”

Telegraph Sport reported on the latest developments on the Professional Game Partnership last month, noting the RFU and Premiership Rugby were yet to resolve their differences with Championship clubs, after a franchise-based ‘Premiership 2’ model was rejected by teams in the Championship last year.

The RFU declined to comment.

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