There is fresh fear amongst the leading clubs in National League Division One that the country's big clubs are turning the Zurich Premiership into a closed shop.

The relegation issue has occupied the headlines for much of the year and National League Division One champions Rotherham are yet to find out whether they will be granted promotion.

The Rugby Football Union have yet to decide if they will accpet the agreement Rotherham have struck with their football neighbours to play at their Millmoor Ground.

In the meantime, Leeds, Bath, Saracens and Harlequins are fighting for survival in the top flight.

However, reports in the Sunday Times suggest that Premier Rugby, the Premiership clubs' organisation, and the RFU have struck a financial deal that will ensure that if any of the founder clubs, Bath, Saracens or Harlequins, are relegated they will have the financial clout to bounce straight back up.

The newspaper believes that if one of the founder clubs is relegated they will benefit from a 'parachute payment' of £1.8m to soften the blow of the drop whereas if Leeds were to finish bottom they would receive only £750,000.

This imbalance would stack the odds heavily in their favour with their National league Division One rivals on the receiving end of £200,000 a year from central funding.

This arrangement explains how Harlequins could be confident of retaining the services of their stars such as Keith Wood, and predicts a perpetual promotion-relegation life cycle for those clubs outside the 'founding elite'.

New chief executive of the First Division clubs Geoff Cooke told the newspaper, "We know there is a shareholder carve-up by which clubs who have been in the Premiership for five years get much more than anyone else, so it is ring-fencing by another name. We believe it is anti-competitive and discriminatory, and the yo-yo effect it creates will undermine the drive and incentive from underneath that are essential to the health of the English game."

Some cynics have suggested that officials are keeping their options open until they know who is relegated.

Cooke also warned that attempts to seal off the Premiership could lead to the First Division clubs approaching the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), "It is extremely difficult for anybody outside the chosen few to compete, and we are minded to talk to the OFT. They are the only body we can turn to, because the RFU clearly has a conflict of interest."

"The RFU appear to be in cahoots, because they are so concerned with the power of the Premiership clubs. It is the RFU's competition, but they seem to have dismissed the First Division as an essential part of keeping standards high in English rugby."