THE HERALD REPORTS

No reason for optimism’ in rugby boycottNEIL DRYSDALE April 11 2007
CommentThe shareholders and board of European Rugby Cup Ltd announced last night that there will be "a European club rugby tournament" during the 2007-08 season, following a meeting in Dublin.

However, despite the best efforts of some to put a positive spin on this apparent outbreak of glasnost, there is no sign yet that France or England's leading clubs will be involved in the event, with the likelihood increasing that the current sponsors, Heineken, and satellite broadcaster, Sky, will be asked to lend their endorsement to a competition which is essentially second-rate.

As matters stand, ERC have revealed that the new competition will include representatives from all of the Six Nations but the board's decision not to discuss at which level the English and French representatives are participating has fuelled fears that the principal clubs affiliated to LNR and Premier Rugby Ltd - who have threatened to boycott the next European Cup and Challenge Cup - are persevering with their stance.

If so, yesterday's convention was more about smoke and mirrors than genuine substance and it was noticeable that the SRU refused to make any comment afterwards. However, The Herald was told by a senior source at the meeting - which was attended by the Scottish duo, Allan Munro and George Jack - there was "no reason for any optimism".

The same person added: "What we are staring at here is an event which won't feature the 26 best teams in the two biggest rugby countries in Europe."

The implications of that scenario are bleak and it will take a major climbdown by the IRB or the club organisations to prevent next year's event from being badly devalued.

Predictably, perhaps, ERC chose to ignore that minor detail without revealing anything concrete, merely adding: "The structure of the tournament will be agreed by the ERC board in the coming weeks."

There was an upbeat reaction from the WRU chief executive, Roger Lewis, who said: "This is a significant step forward from the gloomy picture that we faced. Ideally, we would like the Premiership and French Championship clubs to remain in the fold, and the door remains open for that possibility."

But his words reflect the mounting realisation that any competition, which does not feature such powerhouses as Wasps, Leicester, Stade Francais and Toulouse, will be bereft of the credibility required to maintain the interest of major sponsors and TV companies.

In their absence, the RFU chairman, Martyn Thomas, has suggested that England's first division organisations can fill the breach, while their French counterparts have acceded to a similar request, but this poses obvious problems.

"It is vitally important that we keep the tournament going next season, which means retaining English involvement. I know we would take a financial hit as would the rest of the Celtic nations, but our backers have been incredibly supportive, for which I am grateful," said Thomas.

"We are delighted there will be an event next season, with English clubs participating, and we hope these will be from the Guinness Premiership. However, once we invite FDR, there will be no going back and we wouldn't dump the First Division clubs after one season."

Frankly, the present situation is an imbroglio of vested interests, petty-minded bureaucracy and contractual wranglings, which should have been resolved years ago. Premier Rugby Ltd and their chief executive, Mark McCafferty, have raised the idea of a newly-expanded European competition, featuring 36 or even 44 sides, which he claims could assist the Celts, and the Scots in particular, in recovering from their parlous financial state, but England and France would demand a greater share of the sponsorship/marketing/ television income, which would be resisted by the Magners League countries.

From where square one beckons. So it wasn't surprising that a Murrayfield-based official said that the dispute over the future of the Border Reivers paled by comparison, concluding: "In the bigger picture, it is Europe which counts."

As the delegates left Dublin last night, any optimism sounded closer to noisy desperation.

This article was posted on 12-Apr-2007, 06:58 by Hugh Barrow.