Newport supremo calls for talks on state of game
December 6, 2001

Newport supremo Tony Brown has urged the Welsh Rugby Union to enter into more dialogue with the country's leading clubs to stave of any potential disputes.

The WRU is tonight due to discuss controversial proposals put forward by the recently formed Premier Rugby Partnership Wales.

The six-strong group - Bridgend, Cardiff, Llanelli, Newport, Pontypridd and Swansea - wants it to back their proposal to cut the number of top-flight Welsh clubs from nine to six.

They believe they should receive a large increase in funding from the WRU at the expense of Neath, Ebbw Vale and Caerphilly.

But claims the Gang of Six had set the WRU a deadline or run the risk of the clubs not releasing their players for Wales's rapidly approaching Six Nations championship campaign were dispelled last night.

Brown, the millionaire backer behind the Newport revival told the Western Mail that was untrue but called on the WRU to hold an urgent meeting with Wales's professional clubs.

He warned Welsh rugby was in danger of financial collapse, saying club backers like himself, Leighton Samuel at Bridgend, Peter Thomas and John Smart at Cardiff, Rob Davies and Mike James at Swansea and Huw Evans at Llanelli, did not have a bottomless pit of money.

"In the three and a half years I have been at Newport there has been very little dialogue with the WRU about anything. All we seem to have in Wales is confrontation," Brown told the newspaper.

"I just wonder what the future is going to be. When I pack it in at Newport in two and a half years time I want it to be a viable club with decent income streams. But I wonder if that can happen with the present structure. We are getting approximately £500,000 from the WRU to go on wages while the clubs in England are getting £1.8m for the same purpose.

"We cannot go on forever. There is a big, big question mark over the future of professional club rugby in Wales because the finance is not there.

"I am not saying there should be six professional clubs and Newport has a divine right to be one of them. What I am saying is we need urgent dialogue with the WRU to put the game on a firm financial footing."

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