Premiership will not be ringfenced believes Jersey Reds chairman

Jersey Reds finished this season in fourth place in the Championship

Jersey Reds chairman Mark Morgan says he does not believe the Premiership will be ringfenced.

Championship side Jersey have announced plans to split their professional side from the rest of the club a decade after promotion.

No Premiership side has been relegated since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The league had planned to expand to 14 teams this summer, but bids from Ealing and Doncaster were refused after venue issues which they are appealing.

"I believe that there will not be ringfencing of the Premiership," Morgan told BBC Radio Jersey.

"There's far too much support both at the RFU Council level, these are the people that represent grassroots rugby around the country, and even at the Premiership level itself I don't think there's by any means a consensus for ringfencing.

"I don't see that happening, I think there'll always be avenues for ambitious clubs to find their way into the Premiership if they can justify that."

Championship sides have faced dramatic cuts in central funding from the Rugby Football Union in recent years, forcing clubs such as Jersey to look at new ways of paying for their professional teams.

The Reds have just finished a record-breaking season with more wins and points than ever as they ended the campaign in fourth place.

Morgan says splitting the professional team from the members-run club that also organises women's, amateur and junior rugby in the island is the only way to increase funding for the professional side.

Jersey Reds would look for outside investment to bolster the squad which they cannot currently get.

"We've softly sounded out a number of people before this just to see what the appetite might look like," he said.

"It goes without saying that we wouldn't be taking this step if we didn't feel there was a very good likelihood of attracting investment into the Reds.

"From the outside nothing changes, we continue to train and use the facilities at St Peter.

"I think it strengthens us as opposed to weakens us in as much as we would have more resources to do various things with."

Morgan added: "We believe there's an opportunity for us to take the professional side to another level and so our objective for the next two to three seasons is not just to be a a good top-half Championship team, but to be in a position to challenge to win the Championship year in year out.

"We were constrained from doing that by being part of a members club, for us to do that we need to raise some investment and we can't sell part of a members club, so the only way we could do that was to create a separate entity into which we can take investment."