RFU role in European games questioned

ENGLISH clubs chief Mark McCafferty has questioned the need for any Rugby Football Union involvement in future top-flight European competitions.

England’s Guinness Premiership teams and the top 14 French sides will not take part in next season’s Heineken Cup or European Challenge Cup.

The powerful Anglo-French alliance is set to decimate both events, with broadcasters and sponsors set to withdraw support.

Premier Rugby claim the major issue revolves around shareholding in European Rugby Cup Limited, and the RFU’s refusal to hand the clubs shares. Premier Rugby say an agreement to that effect was reached last October, although Twickenham chiefs denied this.

Either way, the Heineken Cup especially finds itself in meltdown and facing a bleak future. Nine of the previous 11 blue riband European finals have been won by English or French clubs, and the tournament’s current accord finishes at the end of this season.

Premier Rugby chief executive McCafferty said: “Everybody needs to consider, does this need to go ahead with or without the RFU?

“We have said to them we are quite happy for the RFU to have half the English shares and half the English votes. The RFU doesn’t compete in the tournament. What the players, the supporters and the sponsors need is for the clubs, the participants, to be in the tournament. They don’t need the governing body to be a success. As far as the participants are concerned, we have no desire to see any shortfall among our European partners. We don’t want clubs to be without European rugby or short financially.

“But what we do want is a proper European competition in which our interests are reflected in the status of at least equal partnership.”

McCafferty refused to rule out the possibility of next season’s competition being resurrected and has also backed the French view of having no interest in organising any alternative Anglo-French tournament.

“We are working on contingency plans, but our main efforts will go towards trying to reach a basis for a European competition next year.”

ERC directors are due to meet in Dublin next Wednesday and Thursday, at which possible rescue plans could be discussed, but the prospect of any significant progress has to be unlikely.

RFU management board chairman Martyn Thomas said: “Our legal advice on PRL’s withdrawal from the Heineken Cup is clear, namely that they are in breach of the Long Form Agreement (LFA).

“The RFU will consider carefully over the next few days what action, if any, it should take in the light of the best interests of the game, and what value there would be in forcing the clubs to play against their wishes.”

The Anglo-French decision has rendered a crushing blow to Celtic countries, with some of their teams possibly facing financial meltdown if the Heineken Cup cannot be resurrected next season.

Meanwhile Serge Blanco insists the failure to resolve shareholding issues was the decisive factor behind the “irreversible” decision of French clubs yesterday to go ahead with their boycott of next season’s competitions.

Blanco, president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby — the umbrella organisation of the leading French clubs, insisted the clubs would not be “walked all over.”