Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he is saddened to see the end of merit-based promotion and relegation to and from the Prem.
Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he is saddened to see the end of merit-based promotion and relegation to and from the Prem.
Last week rugby authorities in England announced clubs would have to bid to join the top flight from the 2027-28 season.
Clubs wanting to move to the Prem would be assessed on standard of play, finances, investment potential, infrastructure and how their geographical base could help spread the Prem's appeal, among other factors.
It could mean a new side could win a place in the top flight after a season in the second tier, even if they do not top the table but meet other criteria.
"I feel very uncomfortable with it, and for me to say anything different would make me a complete hypocrite," Baxter said.
"It was the opportunity for promotion and relegation that was a huge driver behind masses of the stuff that I've done here and the drive and the excitement and the ambition of what we wanted to achieve here as a club."
Baxter led Exeter to promotion to the top flight in 2010 - the club are the last side to be promoted from the second tier and establish themselves in the top flight.
But Baxter says he also feels clubs must have the right infrastructure if they are to join the top flight.
Exeter spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on Sandy Park in the run-up to their two-legged play-off final win over Bristol in order to ensure the club would be allowed to gain promotion.
Only one non-Premiership shareholder club - London Welsh - has gained promotion since Exeter, moving their home games to Oxford United's Kassam Stadium in order to be able to host a minimum of 10,000 spectators.
Ealing and Jersey Reds have won the last four Championship titles, but neither side had a ground capable of hosting enough fans and were not promoted.
"I can't argue against the meritocracy-based part of it, but at the same time I think it's important people understand the rules of getting basic things like a 10,000 stadium," he said.
"These aren't new rules, it's not like anybody in the Championship has just had these dropped on them now, they've been there for years and years.
"If we want to take Ealing as a perfect example, they've known for a long time that to get promoted they would need to get a promotion-worthy team and a facility that can have 10,000 people.
"That's not been dropped on them in the last two years, it doesn't get dropped on them six months before promotion does it? That's my caveat to it all."
Exeter are still a members club, and chief executive Tony Rowe is exploring additional investment into the side.
Baxter feels the creation of what many see as a franchise-based Prem would give investors more certainty around the clubs they are funding.
He hopes the new system will bring in more new investment into the league, which he feels will benefit the sport as a whole.
"The bigger the investment you want, the more scared off people are by the fact that they might get relegated and the biggest part of your income source can disappear very quickly.
"They're just realities in the modern world at the moment. If someone says to me 'what's the perfect answer?', there isn't one, is there.
"But it was going to head this way if no club in the Championship got to the situation where they could get promoted.
"Once the clubs in the championship almost decide they're not going to get promoted unless the rules change, then they're leaving themselves open for the rules changing, and that's kind of what's happened I think."
Category: General Sports
