Why Worcester Warriors face a fight for Championship admission
Worcester Warriors face a fight for admission to next year’s revamped Championship, with multiple National League 1 rugby clubs vying to beat the relaunched team to the last spot.
The Rugby Football Union is set to expand the Championship from 12 to 14 teams but only those who meet a set of strict criteria will be permitted entry.
With the winner of National League 1 in line for one of the two expansion spots, Worcester are believed to head a three-team shortlist for the remaining place.
While Worcester’s bid is by far the strongest on paper, other third-tier sides are expected to fight tooth and nail to be included in the Championship.
There could yet be further places up for grabs, as there is no guarantee that the 12 clubs who currently make up the division will meet the RFU’s criteria.
It is understood that a number of teams do not currently meet every single requirement needed to stay in England’s second tier. This could change before the 2025 deadlines.
One source told City PM that “most” of the Championship clubs, but not all, would reach the essential criteria at the moment, and that the future for some clubs remained uncertain.
It means that the more ambitious National League 1 clubs and Worcester could all, in surprising circumstances, find themselves in the Championship next season.
It comes after Worcester, who are now run by Wasps owner Christopher Holland, announced plans to upgrade their already Premiership standard stadium Sixways.
The club were kicked out of the Premiership in October 2022 after going into administration and failed with a bid to be admitted to the Championship last season.
London Irish, who are subject to a takeover bid by women’s football investor Daniel Loitz, failed to meet deadlines and will instead target 2026.
That is when the RFU plans to expand the Championship to 16 teams as part of a Tier 2 model that is hoped to challenge the French Pro D2 in years to come.
Clubs across National League 1 expressed an interest in a potential promotion push to the Championship, including Sale FC, who sit 10th in the 14-team third tier.
Another club, Blackheath, applied initially but decided not to pursue the matter further after receiving more information surrounding the promotion bid.
“It will be the existing 12 plus the club that is promoted from Nat 1 plus one other that will be selected from the process that we were party to,” Blackheath chairman James Fleming told City PM.
“Worcester is in that mix but it has not been decided yet. We, along with a whole bunch of clubs, went through the expression of interest process, at which point we received a pack of information and we analysed that and decided we would not apply.
“But I did make sure that by not applying it would not preclude us from gaining access to the Championship, or Tier 2, at some point through the natural promotion process. And I was given an understanding that that was possible.
“We have ambition to play rugby at the highest level on a sustainable basis.”
Despite recent controversies at the RFU over big bonuses to chief Bill Sweeney and apparent tensions over the shape of the future of the English pyramid, Fleming insists the governing body has done some good work.
“In the interests of the game it is right and proper that standards apply to playing facilities and the framework supporting the game and those standards have been thrashed out over two-to-three years so I think the Tier 2 board [formerly Championship Committee] under Simon Halliday, when he united the clubs, has got to a point where all clubs can live with those,” Fleming adds.