IRB re-affirm stand as battle for Europe’s elite intensifies
Chief executive Brett Gosper made his feelings on the situation perfectly clear as he believes any tournament should involve countries from all over Europe rather than just the English and French.
The news will be a huge boost to Ireland’s provinces and potentially paves the way for a bitter legal battle over the future of European rugby.
Both Premiership Rugby and their French counterpart, the Ligue Nationale du Rugby, must now weigh up their options and they are likely to consider going to court if they are unable to force through their plans for a new competition to replace the Heineken Cup.
Premiership Rugby yesterday insisted they will press on with their plans to form their own breakaway competition rather than wait over a month for an ERC meeting about the future of the Heineken Cup.
ERC said on Tuesday the next meeting on the subject will be on October 23.
But after a meeting of Premiership Rugby’s shareholders the English clubs dismissed the timescale out of hand and said they will simply carry on with putting their plans into action.
“The clubs see no purpose in new discussions starting as late as the end of October 2013, as proposed earlier this week,” Premiership Rugby said in a statement.
“The proposals from the French and English clubs for two new, strong competitions of 20 teams in each were tabled more than a year ago.”
Gosper, who was speaking at an event in London to mark the two year countdown to the 2015 World Cup, did not back ERC in their bid to ensure they remain in control of European rugby competitions.
And he also said that as his job is to ensure the growth of rugby around the world he could not sign off on a competition that only includes two nations and excludes Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Italian sides.
“We don’t think a tournament such as that is in the interests of the game, no,” said Gosper when asked if he would veto an Anglo-French tournament as proposed by PRL and LNR.
“We don’t believe in an Anglo-French competition in itself. We strongly believe it should be a European competition. That is our firm belief and what we would be supporting and throwing our weight behind.
“Could the proposed Anglo-French competition kill Celtic and Italian rugby? Well the implications are that a full European competition is the right thing for the game of rugby in terms of development, growth and so on.
“That is how we see it. Each union has to approve it (a proposed new competition). Ultimately, for a cross-border competition the IRB would have to approve it.
“We know there are lots of discussions happening and there are different versions of how there have been fall-outs and disagreements. We urge all parties to get together and find some common ground because we believe it’s in the interest of the game to.
“We are not intervening in the discussions that are happening. For the moment we are hoping the parties who are in direct negotiations work out the situation themselves. We are confident they will do that.”
Gosper did acknowledge that he fully understands the frustrations of the English and French clubs, however.
Both are upset at the way money from the Heineken Cup is distributed, as well as the qualification structure.
Gosper said he understood why the clubs are upset and want to form their own tournament – though refused to take aim at English rugby for being at the centre of political infighting.
“I can see where everyone’s coming from,” he said. “There’s no particular frustration at any union or group of clubs. It’s a fact of the market. The strong professional clubs are in France and England. I would urge all parties to come together for the negotiations. They may all have different views of what the organisation is, but we believe in a European organisation and competition. That’s our starting point. No-one likes these sorts of disputes to play out publicly. But it’s a symptom of a very healthy growing sport and a sport that everyone is interested in. We’d rather get this resolved, move on and have a full European competition that all parties are happy with.”
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