Regional Power

In the build-up to this year's RBS Six Nations tournament, an interesting article was posted arguing that Ireland, Scotland and Wales all produced more successful international rugby teams, relative to their respective resources, than the other teams in the Six Nations. It seems clear that based on the number of people playing the game in each of the countries (both professional and amateur) and revenues enjoyed by their Unions, France and England should be dominating the tournament, and yet are failing to do so. While the article itself acknowledges that this is no scientific study and more food for thought, it struck me that one clear conclusion could be taken from it - that countries with a regional club system are able to punch well above their weight.

I recognise that the chance of seeing a regional club system being introduced into either England or France is pretty slim - the strong traditions and histories of clubs clustered in historically strong rugby areas, as well as the large amounts of money invested into these clustered clubs, would make it nigh on impossible to re-structure these leagues - but I think it is worth investigating why such a system can be so productive.

Firstly, this system ensures that there is an equal spread of resources across the country to ensure that public interest is driven even in areas which traditionally have been dominated by other sports. The upshot of this is that young players are given the encouragement of seeing their heroes play and the chance for the most committed of youngsters to take advantage of top class coaching and facilities by joining top class academies close to their homes and families.

Secondly, the removal of relegation allows clubs to plan for the long-term future (ie. blooding talented young players, investing in facilities, stadia, etc.), without fear of it fatally damaging the club by dropping down to the lower leagues.

Finally, the structure that is currently in place for the regional leagues playing the RaboDirect PRO12 allows the teams to experience international games on a near weekly basis.

Now imagine a Europe-wide system of regional clubs playing across two top level divisions, with no relegation down from the second division. This combination of the best players across Europe playing together would ensure a high enough standard across the two divisions to ensure a relegation would not be apocalyptic, without eliminating the benefits of competing for promotion and to avoid relegation. Narrowing down the number of competitions would also reduce fixture congestion, allowing a more effective organisation of the calendar...but more on that in a later post.

All pie in the sky thinking - definitely.  But food for thought and debate, I hope.

Update - 22 February 2012

Do you think that Clarence Seedorf has been reading this blog and applying my arguments to European Football...? Yeah, perhaps not, but good to see there are some likeminded (and, particularly in this case, massively more influential) people out there.