RFU Championship
Ring-fence the RFU Championship says Logan
ESPN Staff
November 25, 2013
London Welsh have seen crowds plunge after their relegation from the Premiership © Getty Images
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Kenny Logan, the director of London Scottish, has called for the Greene King IPA Championship to become a closed shop with no relegation to encourage second-tier clubs time to develop their businesses.

Logan told the Rugby Paper said that Championship sides were reluctant to seek promotion because the gulf between the top two tiers was now so wide. By ring-fencing the Championship be believes clubs would be more likely to invest in academies and grounds.

"We've got London Scottish back to where it should be, which is the Championship, but there have been some terrible scary moments along the way," Logan told the newspaper. "The Championship is a hard school and we nearly went straight back down in 2012 after fighting so hard to get up the year before. You come up with a team that's winning and think you'll do well, but suddenly you're in a dogfight as ourselves, Jersey and Ealing have found.

"If I were the RFU I would hold the Championship to 12 teams, have no relegation and let the clubs start to build teams, academies and facilities that will then enable them to then move up to the Premiership on a proper footing.

"At the moment we've got a lot of professional teams near the bottom who are terrified of being relegated because they know it's a hard - and very expensive - league to get back into."

Logan said that there were also clubs in National One who did not want to gain promotion into the Championship for fear the amount they would need to invest would be prohibitive.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

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