Premiership plans Euro talks this week

Premiership Rugby’s major shareholders are set to meet this week following latest developments in a crisis that has gripped the European club game.

Mark McCafferty, Premiership Rugby’s chief executive, has suggested English teams will not play in European competition next season.

It follows Ligue Nationale de Rugby’s announcement last Thursday that French clubs would be pulling out of a proposed Rugby Champions Cup formulated by Premiership Rugby and LNR and supporting a 20-team event backed by Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French and Italian unions under the auspices of European Rugby Cup instead.