No 'guarantee' of four Welsh regions in future - WRU chief Steve Phillips
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Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) chief executive Steve Phillips admits there are no long-term guarantees over the futures of Wales' four regional sides.
Scarlets, Ospreys, Cardiff and Dragons are in talks with the WRU, having recently agreed a six-year framework.
Phillips said: "It is our ambition to retain four.
"Can I guarantee that? It's probably not for me to guarantee that to be blunt, but probably no I can't, given what we've seen in England."
Two leading teams - Wasps and Worcester Warriors - were relegated earlier this season from England's top-tier Premiership to the Championship after going into liquidation.
Wales' four professional teams, who play in the United Rugby Championship, have also faced financial issues, but hope their new "framework" will bring long-term sustainability.
However, with no financial settlement formally agreed, players coming out of contract at the end of 2022-23 have already attracted interest from outside Wales.
Dragons' Wales lock Will Rowlands' departure has been confirmed and uncapped Cardiff centre Max Llewellyn is expected to join an English club. Wales and Cardiff prop Dillon Lewis is also the subject of speculation over his future.
Against that backdrop, Phillips told the Scrum V podcast: "We are entering into this six-year framework agreement with four teams. It is the same four teams but, in terms of economic challenges that may come in the future and whatever that means, it is our ambition to retain four.
"We will fight it tooth and nail, but there will be limits to what we can do because we've all got to live within our means.
"This comes back to my point about alignment. If we can get alignment from top to bottom I think we'll have made massive inroads.
"If we can push aside the self-interest that we all know is there - whether that's the WRU, the regions, in the community game or elsewhere - that's the biggest thing we need to fix."
Representatives of the four regions help make up the Professional Rugby Board (PRB), where talks over the future of the game are ongoing.
The PRB consists of Alun Jones (Cardiff Rugby), David Buttress (Dragons), Nick Garcia (Ospreys), who is set to leave, and Simon Muderack (Scarlets) - plus Phillips, WRU finance director Tim Moss and two independent members, independent chair Malcolm Wall and Marianne Økland.
PRB meetings are also attended by WRU performance director Nigel Walker and the chair of the rugby management board, Jon Daniels.
WRU chairman Ieuan Evans was asked if there is enough money in the Welsh game to sustain four regions.
"That is being discussed and that's what negotiations and discussions are ongoing at the moment," he told BBC Sport Wales.
He also said "it is down to the PRB to decide what happens" in terms of the number of professional teams in the future.
The former Wales and British and Irish Lions wing added: "As it currently stands we had a verbal agreement from all the PRB which was announced last week, that there's a verbal agreement in place and that's going to be coming.
"We're awaiting now for those further discussions to bear fruit.
"There is no timeframe. Obviously I'm very conscious of the anxiety. Being a former international rugby player, I understand the concerns and anxieties that will be prevalent at the moment, and we are very mindful of that and empathise.
"But the right people are in the room discussing it.".
Evans also said the PRB "determines the direction of the elite game" with administrative "separation" built into the WRU's structures between the elite game and community clubs.
He added: "The main board has not turned down any recommendations from the PRB. The PRB determines the direction of the elite game... so they determine the shape and the strategy of the elite game and so they then put recommendations to the main board.
"There is [separation]. There's a community game board and a professional game board. They exist anyway and they put recommendations through the main board and those recommendations are built upon the expertise, the knowledge, the evidence that they bring together, but then go to the main board.
"But the main board has never turned down any PRB recommendation and so yes, there are things to be addressed and discussions are ongoing between the regions and the executives as to the way forward, but the right people are in the room."