Gallagher Prem to scrap promotion and relegation

Promotion and relegation have been scrapped from the Gallagher Prem as of the 2026/27 season.

While the competition has always allowed teams from the RFU Championship the chance to earn a crack at the top flight, relegation was temporarily halted as a result of COVID-19, with no teams going up or down in the 2021/22 season.

Teams needed to fulfil a minimum standards criteria to gain promotion to the Prem, regardless of their finishing position in the Championship, and relegation was re-introduced as a possibility for the 2023/24 campaign, when the Prem's bottom club were set to play the Championship winners in a play-off.

However, not since Saracens' relegation in 2020 owing to salary cap breaches has a team been relegated from the top flight. Sarries bounced back up at the first time of asking as the Prem expanded to 13 teams, though numerous administrations has seen the league's numbers drop to 10.

The league hopes to expand to 12 teams from the 2029/30 season, but teams who make bids to join the Prem will be judged based on standard of play, finances, investment potential, infrastructure and their geographical base in relation to widening the Prem's appeal.

"It's long been clear that the previous system was not delivering the financial sustainability or long-term confidence the professional game needs," said Mike McTighe, the chair of the Men's Professional Rugby Board.

"We know there will be scrutiny, and rightly so. The proof will be in delivery: in improved stability, in renewed investor confidence, in tangible benefits to the women's game and in sustained support for community rugby."