Newcastle Falcons have denied reports they are looking at relegation to the Championship to ease their financial pressure.

City AM reports there is a growing belief in the English game that the club may look at leaving the Premiership to aid their financial situation.

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Newcastle Falcons relegation: Can club go down?

The Falcons are bottom of the table but with relegation on hold until 2024 are not in danger of dropping out of the league for sporting reasons.

Newcastle are widely thought to operate well below the salary cap but have still offloaded several players in the middle of this season with George McGuigan joining Gloucester and Trevor Davison signing for Northampton Saints as Oisin Heffernan went the other way and arrived at Kingston Park.

Flanker Gary Graham is set to leave the Falcons to play Pro D2 rugby in France with Carcassone at the end of the season while several other stars will be out of contract when the Premiership season culminates at the end of May.

Related: London Irish insist players will still be paid

Additionally, City AM cites the reduction in the price of a Newcastle season ticket from £294 to £180 for next season, which aligns them with many Championship clubs and is even cheaper than the likes of Ealing Trailfinders and Doncaster Knights.

Falcons are not the only club who have been forced to clarify their financial situation after London Irish denied they were struggling to pay players this month.

The Exiles have experienced delays with a takeover but insisted all staff would be paid on time this month and slammed reports to the contrary as “pure speculation”.

Whereas Irish are enjoying success on the field after breaking into the top four following the weekend victory over Northampton Saints, things are not going well on the playing side for Newcastle.

Friday night’s 17-12 victory at home to Gloucester was just their sixth win of the entire season and was not enough to move them off the foot of the table as Bath beat Exeter to register their first win of 2023 to stay one point above the Falcons.

Dave Walder will officially leave his role as head coach at the end of the season but stepped back with immediate effect earlier this month with Mark Laycock taking over until a permanent successor is appointed.

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