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Winless Newcastle boss Steve Diamond calls for relegation return
By Chris Jones
Newcastle Falcons boss Steve Diamond has said he would back a fast track system that would allow London Irish, Worcester Warriors and Wasps to join the Championship if the three former Gallagher Premiership clubs that went into administration pay off their rugby creditors, while also calling for a return of relegation in England’s top tier.
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Diamond has previously held an advisory role with the Rugby Football Union helping the governing body create a sustainable strategy for the future of the second tier in England.
The Newcastle boss is acutely aware of the ramifications of administration for a rugby club having been Worcester’s director of rugby when they went to the wall and was part of a consortium that tried to take them over.
He said: “The first thing London Irish, Worcester Warriors and Wasps have to do – if they can be given lifeblood – is pay their rugby creditors. That is not a legal obligation but the RFU have regulations that state that and everyone signs up to it. I think they should come back into the Championship as long as they have paid their rugby creditors.
“The creditors are staff, suppliers, agents and player image rights contracts. Fortunes have been lost at all of these clubs. There are people at Worcester who didn’t earn a lot of money and weren’t paid for three or four months.
“The players are different because they can try and find another club or use their skill set to go into industry. If those three clubs sort out the creditors then they need to have a financial plan which is unlike the rest of the Premiership – not to lose two, three, four million quid whatever it is. If you pay off the creditors you immediately gain goodwill in the area.
“If they come back into the Championship then they would add (to the competition) because Wasps are massive and London Irish and Worcester are big brands in rugby. If the Championship was to go to 16 teams then that would be better or even more.”
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Diamond is facing his own major challenge, trying to make Newcastle truly competitive having accepted the role as consultant director of rugby in the north east with the club bottom of the table and still searching for a first league win of the season as they prepare to host Bath at Kingston Park on Friday.
There will be no relegation this season but Diamond believes that kind of jeopardy is vital for the future of the Premiership – if the top Championship club satisfies the criteria put in place.
He added: “My experience as an advisor is that one of the biggest hurdles is the criteria but you have to have a minimum criteria and I do welcome promotion and relegation. Not many people in my shoes would say that because it gives you another bit of motivation with the jeopardy of it. I am on a honeymoon at the moment because I can’t go down.”
“If the clubs, and there are probably half a dozen clubs who would want to come up, if they fit the criteria of the minimum standards by all means invest in the team like the Premiership have and give it a crack.
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“Most of the people in the Championship are sensible and they are incurring losses themselves – significantly lower then the Premiership clubs.
“The most recent owners in the Premiership Ged Mason and Simon Orange at Sale have said they are coming into invest and they have.”
