Championship: 'Extra RFU funding is not enough', Plymouth chief

James Coulton took over as chief operating officer at Plymouth Albion earlier this season

The Rugby Football Union's funding boost for Championship clubs is "nowhere near enough", says Plymouth chief operating officer James Coulton.

The RFU has increased its financial support, understood to rise to more than £500,000, from next season.

Plymouth Albion, who almost went into administration earlier this year, argue second-tier clubs still need more money if they are to survive.

"It goes some way to bridging the gap, but nowhere near enough," Coulton said.

The 12 clubs currently get £380,000 of central funding from the RFU, with that figure believed to be increasing by about £150,000 from the start of the 2015-16 season after concerns that the RFU's level of funding was inadequate to run fully-professional clubs in the second tier.

"It's very welcome, more resources to our coffers is something that we should be really pleased about," added Coulton, whose side are bottom of the division and would lose all their central funding if they were relegated to National One this summer.

"It could have been more, it would have been nice to have been more. It goes some way to helping us offset the costs of running a professional rugby club, but not the whole way."

Under the new funding deal, the first since the Championship was formed in 2009 from the old National League One, a portion of the extra funding will have to be used to pay for ground improvements and medical support.

"We have a considerable gap between what the RFU give the Premiership clubs and what they give the Championship clubs," Coulton added.

"That is largely, in the league, being met out of private individuals pockets. That's something which is not very easy to sustain."