Selfish clubs are putting the game's future at risk, claim Newcastle

Newcastle's chairman, David Thompson, has questioned the validity of the agreement which stipulates automatic relegation from the Premiership at the end of the season.

Thompson, whose club are bottom of the Premiership, says that one tenet of the 2001 Long Form Agreement between the Rugby Football Union and the 12 Zurich clubs has already been abandoned. He also accuses rival clubs of not doing enough to meet the controversial membership criteria which prevented Rotherham from being promoted to the Premiership last season.

"I signed to the agreement which brought England Rugby into being," Thompson said. "We all went into it with open eyes, but on a number of tenets, not just promotion and relegation. We planned for two years to meet the quota of 13 England-qualified players in every match squad of 22. Now the quota has been set aside because of the threat of a legal challenge. Certain clubs have already broken it anyway. If certain parties break the agreement, the whole thing unravels."

Premier Rugby officials insist the relegation issue will not be revisited this season, and that the Premiership will remain at 12 clubs, rather than expand to spare the bottom club, next year. Independent auditors are preparing to assess the status of the top two clubs in National League One, Rotherham and Worcester.

"If everybody goes forward equally, then fine," said Thompson. "If not, people have to accept the consequences. We went with the spirit of the agreement. Other clubs haven't."

Having seen the quota system dispensed with, Newcastle have in the last fortnight signed three overseas players – Mark Andrews, Warren Britz and Mark Mayerhofler – in a bid to secure their Premiership future.

"They are all good players," said Thompson, "and we might escape relegation by signing them, but it will be to the detriment of English rugby. Because of the salary cap we will probably have to lose at least three, maybe more, English players."

Thompson has raised some £12 million to build a new stadium at Kingston Park, and work is well under way. He is angry other clubs have not been so active in meeting the membership criteria which, ironically, sprang from the plan drawn up three years ago for the RFU by the Newcastle director of rugby, Rob Andrew.

"In our agreement we were told we had to adhere to the ground criteria," said Thompson. "How many other clubs can say they are? Bath, no. Gloucester, no. Bristol, no. Sale, no. Then there's the issue of primacy of tenancy. That was thrown out of the window when Wasps went to Adams Park. They said it was because Wasps intend to move back to Loftus Road, but there has been no timescale put on that. Yet again, the industry is in a muddle."

The threat of a legal challenge to the 13-player quota – which was due to rise to 17 in due course, but will not now do so – is thought to have come from Leeds, who have survived and prospered in the Premiership after finishing bottom last season.

"I've gone out and taken corrective action by signing three players," said Thompson. "We've been praised here in the past for our work with the academy, producing young English players. Now the whole thing argues for us to have no England players at all. We are heading down the road of professional football, where you have Arsenal with two English players in the team, if you're lucky.

"I signed an agreement for the benefit of English rugby. The target was to win the World Cup in 2007, as it says in the RFU's strategic plan. We are doing things now which will affect that happening, and it's wrong."