WHEN Cecil Duckworth looks around the fabulous Sixways stadium his money has helped to build, he cannot fail to see the irony which is staring him in the face.

His finance has made the club what it is today -- something the city can be proud of. But it is the desperate greed running through the game which threatens to prevent the club becoming what he wants -- a force in the promised land, the Premiership.

The proposal by Premiership clubs to eliminate promotion and relegation is nothing short of a national disgrace and stands against any basic spirt of sport.

The phrase "for the good of the game" is a generally over-used term and is usually heard when politicians trot out the same old spin while opening new sporting complexes -- the same complexes which are probably doomed to see their lottery funding sailing down the river to prop up the Millennium Dome.

Generally, when the men in suits take over it's bad news and sadly greed runs through national sport at present like a disease without any apparent cure in sight.

Look at football, where England cannot even include one left-sided player because of the invasion of cheap foreign "stars" flooding into the game. Satellite television money is roundly applauded by newspapers controlled by the owner of BskyB, Rupert Murdoch, but it is giving Premiership chairman the short-term view of success -- buy big to get bums on seats, forget about the grass roots.

The same happened in rugby union when the money came flooding in and once again, the chairman went for the big stars on massive salaries without any hope of ever affording it with crowds of around 3,000.

Cricket has been in rapid decline on the world stage for years with our county system producing sub-standard players on a consistent basis. Ask any county club chairman though, if he would be prepared to slash half of their games in the season for the good of the game and the door will be quickly shut in your face.

The good of the game only suits when it is economically viable for the money men and the Zurich Premiership clubs' proposal only re-emphasises that.

What could be good about denying sporting excellence? The club that Duckworth built is something which should be embraced not consigned to a league which has no point to it.

If you finish top you should expect to be crowned champions or promoted and if you are bottom, you expect to be relegated. To take that away from a league system makes it a pointless exercise and the question has to be asked -- why would you want to do that?

The answer, of course, comes down to cash.

Premiership clubs were never interested in the good of the game when the decision was made. They were already checking their bank balances.

Duckworth has high hopes the plans will be blown out the water in the next few days after discussions with the RFU. However, if not, he will take his case to the High Court to force a fair deal.

And if that happens, rugby officials needs to take a long hard look at themselves and ask themselves is this what they envisaged when they first played the game back in their schooldays?

When they first fell in love with the game, did they ever think they would be squabbling in the High Court to shut out all the ethics they ever believed in. And whoever wins, you sense that something central to the game has already been lost.