Rugby Union: Rfu Rubbish Franchise Claims

The Rugby Football Union last night said they had no plans to set up 10 franchises in England to replace the 12 Guinness Premiership clubs and insisted the success of the professional game lay in established rugby cities and towns such as Leicester, Gloucester and Northampton.

The Union was reported to be ready to announce this week that franchises would be set up in Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Coventry, Worcester, Bedford, Saracens, Richmond, Bristol and Plymouth by the start of the 2009-10 season. A franchise system was considered by the RFU's management board last year as its dispute with Premier Rugby over the management of elite players headed for the High Court, but it was shelved on cost and feasibility grounds. It is an option of last resort should attempts to negotiate a new long-form agreement with the clubs in time for 2009 come to nothing.

The Union is currently drawing up its blueprint for the future, The Way Forward, which will be presented to its council early next month before various interested parties, such as the clubs and leading players, are consulted. The media will today be presented with a timetable of events, but the contents of the document will not be revealed.

"What we will be saying is that suggestions we intend to set up a franchise system are rubbish," said the management board chairman Martyn Thomas. "I have had a number of concerned owners on the telephone and I have reassured them that we see the future revolving around existing clubs.

"Why would we suggest something be set up in Coventry when the rugby stronghold of Leicester is a few miles down the road? The same goes for Bedford and Northampton and Plymouth and Gloucester and Bath. I have no idea how this speculation started, but there is absolutely nothing in it."

The RFU has been looking at ways of reducing the demands on leading players by reducing fixtures. Ending the play-off system and even reducing the number of autumn internationals at Twickenham from three to two have been discussed, along with an idea of giving the takings from the third Test to the clubs in return for resting their players for a month over the Christmas period.