The RFU have today announced (3 April) that Worcester Warriors have been added to the RFU Championship, in a new division made up of 14 teams in an increase to the Bedford Blues’ league fixture list for 2025/26.
Worcester Warriors, who will return to the 12,067-capacity Sixways Stadium, will join the winners of National League One – currently led by Richmond – to make up fourteen teams for next season’s Championship, with no side getting relegated.
Worcester originally went into administration in 2022 due to unpaid tax bills, but have now re-emerged under the ownership of Christopher Holland who says the club, “have made significant progress in stabilising the Sixways business”.
“Even though we applied as a new non-league entrant, we are required to settle rugby creditors as defined by RFU Regulation 5. We acknowledge and fully own this process and the responsibility that comes with it”, added Holland.
Both Wasps and London Irish were also in line for a return to the Championship, but according to the RFU, neither club were able to prove they would meet the Minimum Standards Criteria by the end of 2024.
Simon Gillham, Tier 2 Board Chair, stated, “The vision for this league is really ambitious and so much work and collaboration has taken place over nearly two years to establish a path towards a vibrant and self-sustaining competition.
“Today marks a significant step forward with Worcester Warriors returning to professional rugby under new ownership.
“National One is a highly competitive league with some ambitious clubs and we look forward to welcoming the promoted club, as well as continued collaboration with the current Championship clubs into next season.
“There is a great deal still to achieve and we will be working at pace over the coming months to prepare for the 2025-26 season and beyond.”
Opinion: Improving the Championship or preparing for ringfencing?
By Tom Carr, Sports Editor
I might be a bit of a “competition purist”, but if a club is mismanaged to the point of insolvency, owing more than £30m according to their administrators of the time, Begbies Traynor, then they should not be allowed to choose the point of the pyramid in which they re-enter.
With many in the rugby community claiming that the RFU’s ultimate aim is to ringfence the Premiership with their preferred clubs, this decision will do little to quell the rumours.
The infrastructure is already in place at the Sixways to satisfy the Minimum Standards Criteria, and the decision to allow Worcester Warriors back into the higher echelons of the pyramid may be seen by some as an attempt to “re-establish the old order”.
The second tier of English rugby has been front and centre of rugby news in recent weeks, as the Championship clubs forced a vote of no confidence in RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeney.
The game’s most senior official, who joined the organisation in May 2019, survived the vote by a margin of 65% to 35% after facing criticism of a reported pay packet of £1.1m, when the RFU were simultaneously making more than 40 staff members redundant.
Funding for Championship clubs has also dropped significantly, from £650,000 per annum in 2016 down to a latest figure of £133,000.
In addition, the RFU have faced further criticism for the implementation of their Minimum Standards Criteria (MSC), placing what many in the game call “unrealistic” targets on Championship clubs if they wish to gain promotion to the Premiership.
Only Doncaster’s Castle Park, which Bedford Blues visit this coming weekend (5 April), passed the MSC with champions-elect, Ealing failing alongside Coventry.
At the time, Coventry and Ealing were the Championship’s top two. Did the Premiership not want them?
“We were disappointed that the audit on minimum operating standards for the Premiership means that there will be no promotion or relegation between the Premiership and Tier 2 next season,” said a Tier Two Board statement on 20 March.
“Aspiration and jeopardy are the lifeblood of sporting competition and ensuring Tier 2 clubs always have a realistic chance of moving into the Premiership is key,” the statement added.
Sport in all of its facets should be based on competition and merit. This latest decision from the RFU adds to the already bulging folder of evidence that they seem prepared to forgo that in favour of establishment.
