A certain brew is no longer title sponsor of European rugby’s supposed blue riband competition, but it is nonetheless the first and thus far only commercial partner on board the new European Champions Cup. Accordingly, Heineken was there in body as well as spirit at the ‘Pro12’ launch of European rugby’s new flagship tournaments in the Convention Centre at Spencer Dock yesterday, and nobody will have enjoyed it more than the organisers, for even achieving a launch must have seemed a mountainous task in recent weeks.
Low-key affair
In truth, it was a low-key affair, with many of the teething problems still apparently unresolved. Admittedly, the much hailed new deal for television coverage of the tournaments in France will prompt belated agreement for dates and kick-off times for rounds three and four in December by the end of the week.
Aside from discovering that they couldn’t run the tournament without ERC’s expertise, the new governing body European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) may also be discovering that ERC didn’t do such a bad job after all. It hardly helps supporters that they have been unable to make any plans for games that are now just two months away, where before ERC would have announced the third and fourth round dates before the season started.
The French TV deal may yet enable EPCR to find another commercial partner or two alongside Heineken. It transpired that agreement with France Télévisions for the free-to-air aspect of French coverage, in tandem with beIN Sports, was only concluded on Sunday. Canal+ and France Télévisions had offered a modest increase to renew their broadcasting rights. The EPCR had held out for a better deal, with the combined beIN Sports/France Télévisions broadcasting rights raising about €20 million per year.
Added to the estimated €32 million paid by BT Sport and Sky Sports for broadcasting rights in the UK and Ireland, and €4.5 million for international distribution, and the overall television package represents a 60 per cent increase according to Paul McNaughton, one of the EPCR vice-chairmen.
The free-to-air aspect of French coverage is seen as pivotal in securing more commercial partners à la the European Champions League model in football which the new Anglo-French club hierarchy strive to emulate. Yet McNaughton accepted that the organisers will have to play the long game in bringing on board the other partners over the next year or two.
Furthermore, although the nine matches which France Télévisions will broadcast live in the Champions Cup, along with nine in the Challenge Cup, is more than they had last year, it is still a modest output. Very much following the modus operandi of the Bath owner Bruce Craig and Premiership Rugby CEO Mark McCafferty to bring in new TV partners to broaden competition, it is also worth noting that beIN Sports has an estimated two million subscribers, as opposed to the nine million Canal+ subscribers. Less people will watch the Champions Cup than watched the Heineken Cup.
In the meantime, the problems associated with such a bitter, drawn out and ultimately delayed agreement between the nine stakeholders (namely the six unions/ federations and the bodies representing the English, French and Welsh clubs/ regions) remain unresolved.
For starters, the unions and federations caved in with regard to too many of the demands by the Anglo-French clubs, not least that the new organisation’s offices be based in Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Not alone is this proving logistically very difficult, but it must also mean that ERC staff who are being offered continued long-term employment in EPCR will have to paid to relocate to the Swiss canton.
This in turn will contribute to the escalation in EPCR’s running costs. One of the big bugbears for the Anglo- French club owners was the annual running cost incurred by ERC (a non-profit making organisation) of €5 million per year. Apparently, this could be more than doubled in the brave new world.
Part-time role
Among the regular leaks to one English newspaper has been the revelation that Simon Halliday, the former England centre and cricket player, is to take over from ERC’s Jean-Pierre Lux as the new organisation’s chairman. Although McNaughton stressed this would be a non-executive position and initially a busy part-time role, rather than full-time, he could neither confirm nor deny rumours that the chairman’s salary will be in the region of €150,000-€200,000 as opposed to the more modest payment to Monsieur Lux.
Of course, as with the many teething problems the ERC-run Heineken Cup had for many years, ultimately the rugby will probably win out. The weekend after next, Munster and Ulster travel to Sale and Leicester, and Leinster host Wasps, in a trio of spicy Anglo-Irish affairs, while Saracens host Clermont and Racing are at home to Northampton.
Yet the decision not to award the winners of the Challenge Cup qualification for the next season’s Champions Cup – as hitherto – seriously devalues the secondary competition. With no pathway into the premier competition, there must therefore be every danger of the secondary competition becoming a tournament for ‘seconds’ teams.
In another example of the unions caving in to the English and particularly the French clubs, rushing the knock-out stages off with indecent haste so as to play the final on the first weekend in May and give the Top 14 its protracted May/June denouement, further devalues the tournament and makes it difficult to back up its claim to be the premier tournament in European club rugby.
Nor, after such a divisive saga, will the stakeholders be inclined to review any of the heads of agreement they eventually settled on. In other words, these flaws will remain in place for years to come. gthornley@irishtimes.com
