Doncaster Knights benefactor Steve Lloyd pens open letter to RFU after Championship funding is slashed

Steve Lloyd, Doncaster Knights. Picture: Chris Etchells

Lloyd, who was appointed the deputy chairman of the Championship Clubs Committee last summer and will take over from long-serving Geoff Irvine later this year, was one three CCC officials to put his name on an open letter to RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney which was made public over the weekend.

After coming under pressure to do so for several weeks, Sweeney finally notified Championship clubs by email last Tuesday morning of the RFU’s decision to slash funding by around 50 per cent next season with no guarantee there would be no further reductions the following season onwards. He also agreed to address them later that day at a meeting at Twickenham.

The Championship clubs had intended to be use the scheduled meeting to finalise proposals for making the competition more financially sustainable and more professional going forward along with other related items.

The RFU official delivered an allegedly rushed Powerpoint presentation during which clubs claim they were not given the time to digest the many facts and figures or question them.

Sweeney has since defended the decision publicly stating that the clubs, who he claimed were aware of the financial pressures on the RFU, had not met the criteria outlined when the decision to double funding was taken in 2015. That is something CCC officials claim was never discussed at the time.

The CCC expressed their disappointment that Irvine hadn’t been involved in any of the relevant RFU discussions nor had he been given the chance to put forward the views of the Championship clubs.

The CCC had been arguing for some time that funding needed to be significantly improved going forward in order to properly finance a full-time environment for players and support staff and to provide a better spectacle for supporters.

They fear that if the cuts are implemented it would have serious implications for a number of Championship clubs, several of whom are already known to be struggling.