Wasps, Worcester or London Irish need to settle ALL their debts, says Doncaster Knights chief

The three former Premiership clubs who all went out of business in the 2022/23 season, have revealed they have expressed an interest in joining a 14-team second tier for the 2025/26 campaign.

The RFU opened a tender process for clubs to register their interest last month, with a prompt deadline of this Sunday.

It is understood that Doncaster and the other 11 clubs in this season’s Championship have been guaranteed a spot in the division next year, provided they meet the minimum standards criteria, and if so, no club will be relegated.

A 13th team will be the champions of National One, again provided they meet the criteria, with the final club coming from the applicants.

Those applicants must demonstrate a number of things such as the same minimum standards being met that the other clubs are measured against, plus commercial and geographical concerns, as well as an ability to demonstrate financial viability, which includes repayment of rugby creditors.

While not shutting the door completely on a Wasps, Worcester or London Irish being allowed back in via this route, it is that last point which long-time Doncaster president and former Championship board chairman Lloyd takes issue with.

“The bottom line is, no team should be allowed into tier two or even higher leagues without paying off their debts,” Lloyd told The Yorkshire Post.

“The phrase being used is rugby debts. I’ve argued that if you’re running a company that is playing rugby then every debt you have is a rugby debt, whether that’s paying a player or paying the milkman, because even that is borne of playing rugby and therefore a rugby debt.

“Other people think it should be just what they owe to players and coaches etc.

“If they can clear all of their debts and show a clean sheet, then okay, for a one-off, while I wouldn’t like it, I wouldn’t object violently to that happening.

“It’s all right saying Wasps, for example, are a brand name and have been around a long, long time and were a fantastic team in their day, but so were Richmond when they went to the bottom of the pile, so were London Scottish, so were London Welsh, the list goes on.

“Just to say ‘clear your debts and you can come in to enhance the commerciality of the league’, I blow hot and cold over that; it’s a bit like saying let’s rebuild the High Street to get Woolworths back just because it’s a name from the past. It was a famous name, yes; but it isn’t now.”

This latest development comes amid yet another shrinking of the central funding pot Championship clubs receive from the governing body. A few years ago it was £600,000 per annum, last season it was £160,000, this year it is down again to £133,000. By comparison, the 10 Premiership clubs split £33m between them.

“Our pot is miniscule in comparison,” said Lloyd. “If people are going to put the razzmatazz into a regenerated tier two, there should be a far greater incentive to be part of the whole.

“I’d like a golden hello into tier one, rather than a few more hurdles I’ve got to jump over.”

Last season, Doncaster were the only Championship club to prove they wanted to, and could, negotiate all the hurdles imposed by applying for and passing the governing body’s minimum standards criteria.

They had to finish top to win promotion but finished sixth. This term, with the eye-catching appointment of Sir Ian McGeechan now in his first full season as director of rugby, they are again showing ambitions of trying to get into the Premiership.

Some big name signings and a victory over reigning Championship winners Ealing Trailfinders last weekend have backed up their credentials, and Lloyd confirmed they would be applying again for an audit and are confident of meeting the criteria.

Doncaster meet the initial threshold of a 5,000 capacity and can bring in temporary seating to align with the annual increases up to 7,500 and 10,000 in the subsequent years, were they to retain their Premiership status.

“We can increase our capacity now within a month and a half,” said Lloyd, whose club is making a concerted effort to increase both fanbase and commercial revenue streams.

“I don’t have a problem with ticking the boxes, I have a problem with the principle of some of the boxes you have to tick.

“The two main business principles for me are supply and demand, you don’t want swathes of empty seats. We would operate on a simple principle and promise Premier Rugby if we got up we would never turn anybody away. If we see the crowd creeping up to where there’s less than 1,000 seats empty then we’d add another 1,000.

“And No 2 there has to be speculation to accumulate. Otherwise you’ve got no jeopardy in it.”

That means promotion and relegation. If Doncaster were to win the Championship this season, they would face a two-legged play-off against the bottom club in the Premiership to determine who plays in the top division next season.

“I like the idea of play-offs, top v bottom,” said Lloyd. “If you have automatic promotion we’d go up there unprepared.

"Plus if you can’t beat the bottom of the Premiership in a play-off, what’s the point of going up there?”

Rotherham Titans, who have made a positive start to life in National One with by winning four of their first five, travel to Leicester Lions.