Hopes that an outline for the proposed European Champions Cup might be announced today, or even this week, appear to have vanished. Events are moving forward, slowly, with heads of agreement put in place by lawyers but, apparently, still awaiting the signatures of the French and Italian Federations.
In part this is due to matters of translation, with the French Federation believed to be satisfied with everything that is in place but some financial issues remain to be resolved with the Italians, who have a Pro12 meeting tomorrow with their fellow Celts tomorrow.
All main parties are confident a 20-team tournament to be called the European Champions Cup will be established in time for next season, even if the official launch may now not be until next June. It will feature seven teams from the Rabo Pro 12, six each from the Top 14 and English Premiership, with the final place being decided by a play-off between the seventh teams from the latter two leagues.
Resolved
The vexed issue of television rights in Britain after Sky and BT signed conflicting deals with Premiership Rugby (PRL) and ERC have been resolved. It is understood BT will have first choice on three matches involving clubs in the Aviva Premiership for the six rounds of pool matches, with Sky Sports having first choice of three matches not involving English sides, most probably games involving Top 14, Irish provinces and Welsh regions.
This, though, does not rule out the strong possibility of BT televising high profile Anglo-Irish matches.
The secondary competition to replace the European Challenge Cup will feature the remaining 18 clubs or provinces across the three major leagues, with the final two places going to the top two sides in a tournament run off early in the season featuring teams from Spain, Romania, Russia and Georgia.
It is understood the new organising body may be called European Professional Rugby Cup (EPRC), and will be based in Switzerland – Neuch
atel and Zurich have been mentioned
. A new CEO will be installed, possibly on an interim basis, while
some
ERC staff
may yet be brought into the new governing body, given their expertise and the new organisation and competitions are late in coming to fruition.
Vice-presidents
It is proposed the three vice-presidents will be Bath owner Bruce Craig, the driving force behind the split from ERC and the make-up of the new tournament and structure; former chairman of Clermont Auvergne René Fontès;
and former Ireland centre and team manager Paul McNaughton, a one-time head of Deutsche Bank's offshore funds business.
This though, has still to be ratified.
Craig and his allies in the Anglo-French club alliance are keen to ape their footballing counterpart, the Champions League, and to that end there will be no title sponsor; but rather four to six “partners” .
It is conceivable Heineken will be one of those partners, thereby retaining their long association with the blue riband of European club rugby.
An independent firm will most likely be employed to sell the remaining commercial and television rights for the European Champions Cup, particularly in France, where Canal+ and France TV have traditionally split coverage of the Heineken Cup, but where beIN sport have aggressively entered the market.
In this way, the new organisers hope to increase the participation and prize fund from the current €43 million to somewhere in the region €72 million, thereby holding true to their assurances the take between the competing Celts and the Italians will not dip below its current €24 million.
For that to happen of course, the English and French clubs would see their return for participation increase from the current €9 million each to a targeted €24 million each.
