Time Scales

[baldpaul101]

The RFU is the governing body, they hold the players registration, can sanction clubs or players who break ranks & also own the only profitable item in rugby in the country, the England teams.

To break away from the RFU would be a massive undertaking for any club or organisation that wanted to attempt it. The only similar thing I cna think of in organised sport is Kerry Packers World series Cup, where a TV station signed up the cream of international crickters to play in a seioes of matches played under, at teh time, innovative rules & conditions. Although that didn't last, it did force cricket into the 20th century, it did ultimately fail with the national cricket boards regaing control.
Although rugby has some problems, its at a very different point to where cricket was in the 1970s. There are endless ideas & variations being thrown around, its more about choosing which path to follow rather than trying to think up new ideas.

IMO, I think PRL will wait till the end of the season to see if any other clubs go under. Once that's decided they can end the relegation debate as all P share holders will be in the prem (they could invite Ealing in if they wanted to round the numbers up) and none of the clubs will argue. The RFU will be probably have to accept it as their chief asset, the England team, will depend entirely on players in the prem. The Champ clubs will be left to decide if they can afford to be fully professional teams, I suspect many already arent anyway!

Like I said early, a really bad time for Warriors & Wasps to be without their P shares!!

[Trevs Big Tackle]

How does the RFU elect board members, CEO, etc? Are any of the positions elected by "members" and/or the clubs?

I can't see Championship clubs leaving the RFU but there's a lot more semi-pro and amateur clubs than there are PRL members so if there's scope to elect some anti-PRL executives to the RFU board then I could see the Championship and below clubs organising against the PRL interests. Especially if promotion ends.

[baldpaul101]

I don't know exactly how it works TBT, but each club, even grass roots amateur ones. used to be able to attend the AGM & vote, comment etc on motions being presented.
I have a feeling though that the RFU board delegated the running of the professional game to a separate board, no idea how that's structured or governed. I would suspect it has an amount of independence to allow it to be more "professional" and allow the amateur side of the game to be focused on grass roots etc.

Not sure accurate the above is, so happy to be corrected

i think the issue will always be that the PRL owns the England players & therefore the RFU's only real way of making money. PRL also know though that without the England money, profile, media attention and the agreement to not select players who move overvsea's, they are scuppered. Hence the uneasy symbiosis we know have.

[Iceni]

I admire the resilience shown on this and other threads as I’m still in bits over the demise of a club I spent a lot of time and money on following.  I can’t even bring myself to watch a rugby game at the moment as the feelings are still raw.  I hope this will change as it’s a game I’ve loved to play and watch but it’s going to take a huge leap of faith for me to re-engage.