Harlequins: Some More Equal Than Others (17 May 2005)
 
Whatever the arguments currently being aired in the media, the issue of promotion and relegation from the national and local leagues would appear to be set in stone for the next few years at least. Tears have no doubt been shed (not least here at LSH!) by all those clubs which have suffered the accursed drop from a division, and brows have become even more furrowed on those committee men who have to balance the books and find other income streams to cope for the lowering of the handouts from the RFU - and the expected decrease in revenue in and around their clubs.
So should club officials who have seen their team drop down in the local leagues feel any sympathy with the Harlequins who have just suffered the ignominy of being relegated from the Zurich Premiership?  Hardly, for the system of payments at the highest levels is geared to retain a club like the Harlequins in the elite formation for as long as is possible. Indeed, a look at the finances available to a relegated club seems to make it impossible for any club below the Zurich Premiership ever returning within twelve months. If Harlequins cannot return to the top flight at the first opportunity then there really is a huge problem
within the club.
The 'Quins’ new coach, Dean Richards, (now he'll cost a few bob!) will, in season 2005/06, have a bigger budget available to him than the coaches of Leeds Tykes and Worcester who avoided relegation.  For, as a founder member of the Premiership, Harlequins will receive a £1.8 million parachute payment from Premier rugby, plus a further £85,000 for competing in the lower division. Clubs are issued shares according to their length of tenure - hence the uneven playing field. And certainly an uneven playing field in the lower division, for what chance have other clubs of competing with the financial clout of the premier London side? What chance have the other clubs of attracting a similar quality of players when competing against such unequal financial odds? None!
We are not talking about the support of a "sugar daddy" or the generosity of a club member's company - over £120 million pounds has been poured into the Zurich Premiership clubs by rich benefactors and club owners since the game became professional in 1995 - but are talking about monies being allocated from within the very game itself and within the rules of the game. A level playing field? Never! So expect Harlequins to be back among the "big boys" in the Zurich Premiership within the next twelve months. And please, don't shed any tears.