A mess that needs quick sorting
Of course they have a right to express their views on the accepted shortcomings that exist with the Heineken Cup, but my annoyance centres around the way they go about doing it.
The impasse in Europe is not only due to the English clubs seeking structural, financial and qualification changes to the current format — against which they have legitimate grievances — it’s about power and more specifically wrestling that power from the Dublin-based ERC, an organisation they are dead set on dismantling.
The PRL’s deputy chairman Bruce Craig, who only became involved as the new owner of Bath in April 2010, somehow appointed himself spokesman for all European clubs by pronouncing a few weeks ago that, given a choice, all 38 European clubs “would probably agree” to join the new competition — the Rugby Champions Cup — proposed by the PRL and LNR, before helpfully declaring that the Celtic countries and Italy face “financial oblivion” if they fail to come on board.
Nice opening shot Mr Craig.
As for the sport’s governing body, Saracens chairman and long term backer Nigel Wray made it clear last week that should the IRB seek to block their new tournament we will “see you in court”.
Much has been written about the push for change from the Anglo-French alliance, yet the mood for compromise in the boardroom of the key stakeholders appears non-existent. The fact that the PRL and LNR have confirmed they will not be attending the next ERC board meeting on October 23rd and, of even more concern, refuse to engage with the independent mediator appointed by the IRB, the respected Canadian sports lawyer Graeme Mew, is worrying in the extreme.
The tournament, as it is currently structured, is in need of an overhaul but is so superior to its Southern Hemisphere counterpart that the warring factions need to be careful not to bite the hand that feeds it and throw the viability of the professional game model on this side of the world into disarray. That in turn will have a massive impact on the sport globally.
The battle for control of the club game in Europe is a confrontation that was always going to happen at some stage once the game went professional. The only surprise is that it has taken 18 years to arrive.
The kernel of the problem lies in the fact that when the game went open back in the summer of 1995, the RFU baulked at contracting their players centrally and allowed wealthy businessmen to take ownership of a number of their clubs. The English players were contracted to those clubs and for many years have been caught in a crossfire between the requirements of the national side and obligations to their clubs.
It hasn’t helped either that the vast majority of those clubs are haemorrhaging money and would not survive without the financial support of their backers. At some stage those financiers would either walk away — and several already have — or look for a return on their investment. Now a more lucrative return could come in the form of a new television deal struck with BT Vision, who have already succeeded in wrestling the rights to the Aviva Premiership from Sky. That’s fair enough for it was the right of the PRL to negotiate this new contract, working in tandem with the RFU.
The big problem attaching to that deal is that PRL also sold rights to the home games of the English clubs in the Heineken Cup, despite the fact that their representative on the board of ERC was already party to anagreement to extend the broadcast rights for the European tournament to Sky for a further three years.
Given that French players are also contracted to their clubs and not the FFR — and in common with their English counterparts many are owned by multi-millionaires like Mourad Boudjellal in Toulon and Jackie Lorenzetti in Racing Metro — they too feel they could negotiate a far better financial deal for their clubs by seizing control of the running of a new tournament as opposed to the rugby union backed board that control the ERC. All well and good and the French and English are entitled to be up in arms when a brand new club like Zebre can walk straight into the Heineken Cup while former Heineken Cup winners like Bath and Wasps have missed the cut by not qualifying through their domestic league. The irony is that the Rabo Direct would be a far better competition if only the top six/eight qualified for the Heineken Cup by right every year. That will surely have to change.
The distribution of the money generated by ERC through broadcast rights and sponsorship on an annual basis, excluding qualification bonuses and prize money, is currently split 48% between the French and English (24% each) with the remaining 52% dispersed on a sliding scale between the unions of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy.
The English and French now want that shared evenly between the three domestic leagues which would increase their respective dividend to 33% each with the remaining 33% divvied out between the Celtic nations and Italy. The logic for that is based, amongst other things, on the size of the television audience of which the vast majority reside in France and England.
The issue that cannot be compromised, however, is the governance of the game. That must continue to remain under the control of the respective rugby unions and the IRB. If the clubs, and by extension, their rich benefactors are allowed to assume control of the game, then we are in serious peril, with international rugby becoming the first casualty. Before we know it clubs will be unwilling to release their players for international “friendlies” such as the Autumn Series and the financial stability of the respective rugby unions, who remember, have responsibility for running the game at all levels, will collapse.
The arrogance within the PRL and the LNR has led to a situation where they think they can ride roughshod over existing IRB regulations. Their respective CEO’s, Mark McCaffrey and Paul Goze, suggest that people who say their proposed new tournament needs the approval of their respective unions and the governing body are living in the past. Somehow I don’t think so. As for suggestions that Celtic clubs like Munster or Leinster would somehow break away from the IRFU and partake in such a competition is daft. That will just not happen.
If the Anglo-French alliance do break away and set up their tournament in defiance of the IRB, who is going to referee the games? Who will provide the citing commissioners, disciplinary review panels to control and run those games? The French situation is even more complex as their clubs not only need the authorisation of the FFR to partake in any new cross-border tournament but also require clearance from the French Minister for Sport.
Two weeks ago, the IRFU, WRU, SRU and the Italian Federation (FIR) all confirmed that none of their sides would participate in the proposed new Rugby Champions Cup. The fact that the chairman of the IRB, Bernard Lapasset, is French will only serve to make it more difficult for the LNR to run with the English. At the launch of this season’s Heineken Cup in Paris, coach of the current holders Toulon, Bernard Laporte, appeared decidedly uneasy and was less than enamoured by the approach of the PRL which he described as “inelegant and inappropriate”.
The silent party in all of this is the RFU. They are now in a very awkward position given that England host the 2015 World Cup and the last thing they need is another battle with the clubs to whom the English players are contracted. I wondered at the time why only two of the 13 venues for World Cup games were fixed for traditional club rugby venues, Gloucester’s Kingsholm and Exeter Chiefs’ Sandy Park. Could the RFU have foreseen a scenario where they may be required to run a tournament with Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff as the only regular rugby venue? The biggest concern for the Celtic nations and Italy is the fact that the English, with their new BT Vision deal and even more so the French clubs with a proposed new television deal from the Qatar owned beIN Sport for the Top 14, could afford to go it alone with just their domestic leagues for a sustained period of time. Players could find themselves barred from representing their country in the Six Nations and at the World Cup, leaving them directly in the firing line with their very livelihood at stake. This one could get very messy with the likelihood of a protracted legal battle over those Heineken Cup television rights with Sky and BT Vision going head to head leaving everyone in limbo for a protracted period of time. Something needs to start happening quickly to resolve this one.
