Which Gallagher Prem Rugby stadium is the best? December 26, 2025 There are 10 Gallagher Prem Rugby teams fighting to thrive, survive and just coast along this year – and their stadiums are key to achieving momentum. But which stadium is the best to watch England’s top flight competition in? In last year’s inaugural edition I had Newcastle Falcons’ (now Newcastle Red Bulls) Kingston Park bottom, [...]
Champ clubs demand divorce payment from RFU over Prem franchise plan December 23, 2025 The Rugby Football Union is facing the threat of legal action from Champ clubs if the RFU Council approves a proposal from the Prem to become a franchise league with no promotion from the second tier. City AM has learned that the Champ Rugby board held an emergency meeting with clubs last week at which [...]
Cornish Pirates: We will kick door down to reach franchised Prem Rugby December 18, 2025 The chief executive of Cornish Pirates insists she is ready to “kick the door down” to get her Champ side into Prem Rugby if the top flight becomes a ringfenced franchise league. Prem Rugby and the Rugby Football Union are exploring a franchise model which would see the current 10 teams form a new ring-fenced [...]
Investec Champions Cup: How Prem Rugby can beat Top 14 budgets December 5, 2025 It seems to come around quicker every year; not Christmas but the Investec Champions Cup. Some criticise the competition – whether it is because of the inclusion of the South African United Rugby Championship teams, its availability being restricted to Premier Sports or its odd pool format – but it is the very best of [...]
Prem Rugby should consider radical shake-up of player transfer market November 28, 2025 The best thing about the football off-season is the transfer speculation, deal agreements and player announcements. Watching teams bid £100m for a player is somewhat grotesque but it is also addictive, and transfer deadline day is some of the best live sports news around. Rugby has none of this. That’s mostly because players tend to [...]
Mercury13: Mata-backed women’s football group lines up Spanish club November 26, 2025 Juan Mata-backed investment group Mercury13 is in advanced negotiations about buying a stake in Spanish top-flight women’s club Levante Badalona. Mercury13, which bought FC Como Women in 2024 before investing in WSL2 club Bristol earlier this year, has pledged $100m to build a global portfolio of clubs, with Badalona earmarked to be its next investment. [...]
Lloyd’s of London CFO leaves role with Prem Rugby club Saracens November 18, 2025 Lloyd’s of London’s chief financial officer Alexandra Cliff has left her role as director of Prem Rugby club Saracens after less than a year. The former Direct Line Group, StarStone, and AJ Gallagher figure was appointed as a director of Saracens on 25 November last year following the departure of former chief executive Mark Thompson [...]
Calls for Prem Rugby franchising grow as clubs register debts of £340m November 12, 2025 The 10 Prem Rugby clubs registered combined debts of £340m in the 2023/24 season as calls for a radical franchising process grow louder. Despite encouraging signs of growth in commercial income, the clubs in England’s top flight made a combined loss of £34m, according to the Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report. It comes as City [...]
Exclusive: Middlesex to play just two T20 Blast games at Lord’s in 2026 November 12, 2025 Middlesex will play just two Twenty20 Blast matches at Lord’s next year in a further indication of their declining foothold at the Home of Cricket. The 13-time county champions have been tenants at Lord’s since 1864 and have a 12-month rental agreement with the Marylebone Cricket Club that is renewed on an annual basis, but [...]
Exclusive: Leicester Tigers and DCMS face scrutiny over £6m Covid loan renegotiation November 5, 2025 Leicester Tigers and DCMS are facing questions after they altered the repayment terms of the club’s £6m Covid-19 loan to interest-only until 2028. The change, which only emerged in the Prem Rugby club’s most recent financial accounts, casts further doubt on DCMS’s chances of recouping its £474m lending to sporting and cultural bodies – raising [...]