Rugby’s two codes were traditionally associated with the north and south. Rugby league had a gritty, working class image. Rugby union was associated with the south of England and the established middle classes. When visiting a fee paying boarding school I know quite well, I was surprised that they had hired a prototypical Scouser as a teacher until I discovered that he was the rugby coach.
Rugby’s two codes were traditionally associated with the north and south. Rugby league had a gritty, working class image. Rugby union was associated with the south of England and the established middle classes. When visiting a fee paying boarding school I know quite well, I was surprised that they had hired a prototypical Scouser as a teacher until I discovered that he was the rugby coach.
Rugby league has come a long way since the game switched from winter to summer in 1996. Its income in 2010 was £48.2m and it is turning a profit. So can football learn anything from the way in which it is organised?
The game has introduced a salary cap of £1.65m and has a licensing system to ensure that clubs are financially solvent. There is no automatic promotion and relegation to the 14-strong Super League but a franchise system. Clubs have three-year licences, at the end of which they only go up or down in relation to criteria on ground quality, management and community engagement. I am sure there are some people in football who would like the Premiership to be a closed shop but it would go down like a lead balloon with fans.
But the system doesn’t provide more opportunities for British players, often seen as one of the failings of the Premiership, 40 per cent of players are from New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Island and France. Expanding the game to London, Wales and southern France has drained resources from its northern heartland.
The recession seems to have hit the game hard. Bradford Bulls only escaped administration because fans managed to raise £500,000. Neil Hudgell, chairman of Hull Kingston Rovers, told the Financial Times, ‘Bradford Bulls is the tip of the iceberg. There is not enough revenue and there are too many clubs and too few decent players. Clubs use the Inland Revenue as an unofficial overdraft.’ Not much difference from football there, then.
In any professional sport, the temptation is always there to try and buy success because of pressure from the directors, the sponsors and the fans. Expectations in professional sport are growing, just as they are in society more generally, but in any league half the teams will be below the midway mark.