Premiership Rugby: Jersey Reds chairman Mark Morgan calls for equal funding

Jersey Reds hosted Premiership sides Leicester Tigers, Sale Sharks and Bath in pre-season

Jersey Reds chairman Mark Morgan says his side would not seek promotion to the Premiership unless they got the same funding as other top flight clubs.

Jersey are second in the Championship after winning all seven of their matches, and are two points off Ealing.

Newly promoted sides do not get the same split of central funds as more established sides in the league.

"I think there needs to be a massive restructure of professional rugby in the country," Morgan told BBC Jersey.

There are 13 clubs with Perpetual Shares, known as 'P Shares', which entitle sides to a share of the league's income no matter what division they are in, while sides also get more funding depending on how long they have been in the league.

In 2012 Exeter - who were promoted in 2010 - paid £5m to Leeds for their P Shares and only got the maximum amount of funding from 2016.

Supporters of Worcester and Wasps - who have both been removed from the Premiership after going into administration this season - have called for the clubs to be allowed to keep their P Shares to help make them attractive to new investors, something others such as Exeter boss Rob Baxter have disagreed with.

"At the moment the money that a Premiership team receives compared to a Championship team means that there'd be no way that we could compete at this point in time," Morgan said.

"There needs to be a massive rethink in how the game's run and funded.

"We would love to have an opportunity to have a tilt at the top level, but you can't do that without equitable funding and that doesn't exist at the moment."

Jersey's ground in St Peter, in the west of the island, would also struggle to be able make the Premiership's minimum standards of a capacity of 10,001, with Morgan ruling out a temporary move to a suitable arena on the English mainland.

"There is a review going on, and hopefully that will change dramatically, but the way things stand it wouldn't be feasible for us to go up," he added.

"We've got quiet a substantial gap between what it costs us to play and what we can make from a matchday.

"The way we operate at the moment we're very fortunate that that funding gap is covered by a group of local philanthropic business people and we'd love more to join and spread that ownership."