Why Leicester Tigers should be relegated

So I write this with a heavy heart and with no vendetta or bias as a supporter of another club.

Let's also get something else clear - Leicester Tigers are NOT too good to go down. Yes they still possess the talent to dig themselves out of this hole, but they have the smell of a club in a relegation fight. That's especially true in a Premiership more congested than the M25 at rush hour (or any hour for that fact), with just nine points between bottom and fourth.

Any side that's lost eight in a row- on their worst run for 40 years - conceded 41 points at newly promoted Bristol Bears and sacked their coach just after one game are in a mess, no matter their name or history.

Currently sitting four places and three points above the bottom, the Tigers are in the thick of it and the difference between them and those below them is that they are a failing club. With the exception of Newcastle, Sale, Worcester and even Northampton will have expected to be lower down the table at some point in the season.

Their current positions aren't failures, just processes of arguably the most competitive Premiership ever and their own rebuilding. They were prepared for this, the former back-to-back European Champions are not.

Other rugby giants have suffered shock relegations to the semi-pro second tier in the past - most notably Harlequins in 2005 and Northampton in 2007 - while Bristol languished in the Championship for years, almost going bust in the process. Those rocked the sport, but a Leicester Tigers relegation would be an earthquake for the English game.

Northampton and Harlequins can somewhat be forgiven for their fall from grace, as they failed to get to grips with the messy bunfight that was the first decade of professional rugby union and the lack of building early strong foundations eventually caught up with them. At that time, Leicester dealt with the whirlwind of professionalism better than any other club, combining professional sport acumen, with their amateur ethos and history seamlessly.

Like Manchester United in the first 20 years of the Premier League, the Tigers were the perfect model and it brought unrivalled and envied success. But like every market leader, your systems and processes will eventually be copied and surpassed, especially if you don't continue to progress and innovate.

When a club is more concerned with building a hotel, rather than a proper coaching structure, then alarm bells must ring. The Tigers have always been about mud and mauls, not spas and fancy bars.

And this is why Leicester's crimes are far more serious than those of Quins or Saints. They had everything right and are now in a mess due to complacency, arrogance and ignorance. They sat in the the ivory tower, looking down and believing that standing still was the right way and that no one else would dare challenge them.

This is one of the reason's why I believe it would be good for Leicester Tigers to be relegated to the Championship.

Relegation good for Leicester

As shocking as it was at the time, relegation from the Premiership was the long term savour of both Northampton and Harlequins. Both admitted they had lost track of who they were, what their clubs stood for and their structures were wrong.

They used their season in the Championship, both processions to promotion, to stop, reset and start again, both on and off the pitch. They sorted out their administration, they got their culture right, refocused on their youth set-up and started connecting with their fans again.

Once back up, both clubs went on to enjoy their best era in the professional world. Quins were crowned 2012 Premiership champions having won the European Challenge Cup in 2011. The Saints became English Champions in 2014 and Challenge Cup victors in 09 and 13.

In recent years both clubs have started to produce impressive youth products as well, something the Tigers were famed for in the past. Furthermore, attend Franklins Gardens and The Stoop and just marvel in the post match atmosphere and the zones created for the fans to meet their heroes and for youngsters to throw a ball around - that no longer happens at Welford Road.

There is a lack of connection between the players and the fans. That's not either's fault, just how the club has lost touch as it has stood on the top perch of English rugby. Attending Welford Road feels more like attending a football game rather than a rugby match in terms of getting close to the club and it's players - it's almost impossible post match.

The East Midlands club's focus is currently on finding a defensive coach to support green head coach Geordan Murphy. The fact they've not got anyone yet speaks volumes. The club lack the creditably, trust and finances to tempt the world's best, something that was never a problem in the past.

But a defensive coach isn't the answer. Recruitment is not right, the youth system has failed, coaches are being sacked on a yearly basis. What hasn't changed is what is above, this is where the Tigers problems are. The rot has started at the top and worked it's way down slowly over the last few seasons. Their current plight was always the inevitable conclusion.

If Leicester stay up, they will get in new coaches and make a few signings. It will simply paper over the cracks.

Only a catastrophic failure makes any business make true, impactful changes and that is what Leicester need from top to bottom.

Like Quins and Saints, The Tigers will only be able to fully reset and rebuild to their former glories once they hit rock bottom - they need to hit that soon, admit their have a problem and seek help and change.

Good for the Premiership

Ring fencing is a divisive issue and if it ever comes in there will be lots of complaints, moans, and knowing rugby, threats of lawsuits and court cases.

But maybe Tigers' relegation will send such shockwaves throughout the sport it will make people realise there is no good to come from forcing a fully professional business and their employees to spend a season in the currently dying Championship.

Relegation and their resulting seasons in the second tier have destroyed clubs like Rotherham, London Welsh and Yorkshire Carnegie, while London Irish, who yo-yo each season, are going backwards.

With the fear of relegation, clubs cannot truly build on and off the field or fully invest in youth. Why would potential sponsors risk being tied into long, expensive deals, when they know at least a season of their sponsorship could be wasted with nobody seeing it in the Championship - which badly lacks crowds, media coverage and TV appearances.

Why would a player join a club near the foot of the table, preferring to become a squad player in the safety of a mid-table side. It's sad, but it's their jobs. Play for a club near the bottom, get relegated and risk losing your job or taking a big pay cut. Join Saracens, play three games a season but have a good wage for your entire career.

It means clubs hoard players; youngsters don't get the regular game time they need and thus never fulfil their full potential. It will long term, and is already is if we are honest, negatively affect England. We have a talented national team, but not a world class one and haven't for 15 years - there are reasons why!

Promote two clubs from the Championship, ring fence for five years and allow Premiership clubs to experiment and grow in safety. It will allow Championship clubs with Premiership ambitions to slowly and sustainably develop in those five years, to be ready for top flight rugby in that time. Rather that than encouraging the current boom or bust mentality - remember what happened to London Welsh?

Good for the Championship

And that brings us on to the second tier. I've spent years covering it in my former job, following Leeds, now Yorkshire Carnegie, and seen first hand how an unsupported and under-financed league kills great clubs.

It is impossible to run a fully sustainable professional club, with a first class squad, medical facilitates, academy and administration team in the second tier. The money, crowds, sponsorship and interest is just not there yet.

People forget that when you get into the Premiership you aren't just competing on the pitch but off it - fighting for the same sponsors and advertising. If your marketing team is one person, then Exeter's team of many is going to get the money, not you. If you aren't strong off the field you've had it, and Championship clubs don't have the infrastructure to compete.

And that's why Leicester in the Championship would be a huge boost to the league. The focus it would bring would be unprecedented and would hopefully shine a spotlight on how much support and money is lacking in the league and how urgently it it needed from the governing bodies.

The Tigers would walk the league, no different to most other club that are relegated, serving the one year punishment all naughty boy Premiership clubs must go through before being allowed back into the top flight - it's a waste of time for everyone!

So yet again the Championship wouldn't be competitive, but I'd hope Tigers legacy would for starters boost the coffers of their lower league rivals - all would experience sell out home crowds and higher beer sales for one thing.

Championship clubs would get a first hand look at how to run a truly professional club, no matter what their current problems. Hopefully it would make them realise how much work they need to do to really be a competitive professional club in the top flight. Maybe, just maybe, they would then accept ring fence as a good idea and become realistic about what is required and then to allow themselves to build firm foundations for long term success - like Exeter did all those years ago.

And finally, and most importantly, it would allow the Championship more exposure than ever before, something it deserves. Yes, it's a struggling league, but that's down to the governing bodies, not the clubs. There are some great ones in that league, like Bedford, Pirates, Nottingham, Doncaster, Ealing and Yorkshire. They deserve the spotlight to show how good they are and what they could become with the right funding.

Ultimately for professional rugby to be sustainable in England the game needs a strong second tier. Ideally we need two great fully professional leagues.

Maybe, just maybe, the relegation of a rugby union giant can be the catalyst not just for Leicester Tigers' own revival, but for the long term domestic survival of a great sport.