European Cup:Bernard Lapasset, president of the French Rugby Federation, will today tell his leading clubs that, if they pull out of next season's Heineken European Cup, they will not be allowed to arrange a cross-border tournament with their fellow rebels in England.

Lapasset will address a board meeting of Ligue Nationale de Rugby, the umbrella organisation for France's top 30 clubs, before a vote is taken by delegates on whether to boycott next season's European and European Challenge cups. The LNR clubs are not allowed, under French law, to play matches that are not sanctioned by their governing body.

As head of the FFR Lapasset will tell the clubs permission will not be given for them to arrange fixtures with Premiership sides. He has tried to broker a deal which would see the French and English clubs remain in Europe, meeting Rugby Football Union officials as well as the LNR president, Serge Blanco. He is anxious to avoid an embarrassing and, to the Celtic unions, potentially ruinous end to the European Cup in a year when France is hosting the World Cup and when Lapasset is expected to challenge for the chairmanship of the International Rugby Board.

There are indications that some French clubs feel the dispute has become like a bush-fire out of control. What they had intended as a one-year sabbatical from the European Cup because of fixture congestion next season faces becoming permanent because the competition will fold without the French and English as sponsors and broadcasters pull out.

Blanco, who refused an offer from the IRB to play league fixtures during the World Cup, cited the RFU's refusal to hand over half its shares on European Rugby Cup Ltd to Premier Rugby as the reason for LNR's boycott threat but he said his clubs' absence would be for only one year. Premier Rugby is considering plans for the longer term.