EXETER Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter says he feels “uncomfortable” about plans to scrap automatic promotion and relegation to Premiership Rugby.

Rugby authorities recently confirmed that from the 2027–28 season, clubs will have to bid for a place in the top-flight, rather than simply earn promotion by winning the second tier.

Teams hoping to join the Premiership will instead be assessed on a range of factors including playing standards, finances, investment potential, infrastructure and how their location could help grow the league’s reach.

Baxter, who guided the Chiefs to promotion in 2010, said the change runs against the competitive spirit that drove the club’s rise.

“I feel very uncomfortable with it, and for me to say anything different would make me a complete hypocrite,” he said. “It was the opportunity for promotion and relegation that was a huge driver behind masses of the stuff that I’ve done here and the drive and the excitement and the ambition of what we wanted to achieve here as a club.”

However, Baxter said clubs must also meet the infrastructure requirements needed to compete at the top level.

Ahead of their play-off victory over Bristol Bears in 2010, the Devonians invested heavily in upgrades at Sandy Park to ensure they met Premiership standards.

“I can’t argue against the meritocracy-based part of it, but at the same time I think it’s important people understand the rules of getting basic things like a 10,000 stadium,” he said.

“These aren’t new rules. It’s not like anybody in the Championship has just had these dropped on them now – they’ve been there for years and years.”

Only one non-Premiership shareholder club – London Welsh – has gained promotion since Exeter, moving their home games to Oxford United's Kassam Stadium in order to be able to host a minimum of 10,000 spectators.

Ealing and Jersey Reds have won the last four Championship titles, but neither has had a ground capable of hosting enough fans and have not been promoted.