ERC says Heineken Cup future secure

ENGLISH and French clubs will play in next season’s European Cup and Challenge Cup, tournament organisers ERC confirmed yesterday following a meeting at Twickenham between all stakeholders.

“We would like to thank all of ERC’s stakeholders who have been involved in discussions, and I am delighted to be able to confirm the future of both tournaments on the day of the 12th Heineken (European) Cup Final,” said ERC chairman Jean-Pierre Lux. “ERC stakeholders will meet shortly to finalise the agreement that will secure the long-term future of both tournaments.”

English and French clubs had threatened to boycott European rugby union’s showpiece tournaments.

The English Rugby Football Union (RFU) and PRL, the body which runs the English Premiership, were at loggerheads over the Premiership’s demands for an equal say with the governing body in the running of the competition. That triggered the boycott threat from the English clubs. Their French counterparts have raised similar issues although they are seen as having been motivated primarily by concern at fixture congestion in the early part of next season, when the World Cup will be held in France.

French Rugby Federation (FFR) president Bernard Lapasset was upbeat after the meeting at Twickenham with Lux, Serge Blanco, president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), RFU boss Martyn Thomas, PRL head Tom Walkinshaw, IRB president Syd Millar, and Gareth McGrath, director of the European Cup.

“It’s sure, the clubs are coming back. We’ve signed a protocol agreement,” Lapasset said.

The new protocol will come into effect at the end of this season for a minimum of seven years.

“It’s not only for the good of French clubs, it’s above all good for rugby in its entirety,” Blanco said.

“It will allow us to advance. Today a new era has begun.”