Champions Cup chief wants Irish provinces to challenge
English league winners Saracens begin the defence of their European title next week when the 2016-17 season gets under way for its third season since evolving from the Heineken Cup in 2014. The Londoners beat Parisians Racing 92 in last May’s final, the fourth in succession not to feature a Guinness Pro12 club.
No PRO12 teams reached last season’s elimination rounds and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) director general Gaillard believes strong Irish provinces, and their large numbers of travelling fans, are needed in the knockout stages if the Champions Cup is to thrive.
“I hope (Anglo-French dominance) will be broken,” Gaillard said yesterday at the launch of the new Champions Cup campaign in Dublin. “We definitely want to see the Irish provinces coming back strong. Our chairman Simon Halliday met them a few weeks ago to try discuss where they were and I think it’s fair to say they are looking at themselves first of all. It was absolutely not about blaming the new format or the new competition. It was about ‘we need to get it right, we need to get better, we need to deserve to be back’.
“It’s no longer 24 spots, it’s 20 now, so the level is higher. I think they are on the case and we certainly all hope the Irish provinces will be back in the game. Absolutely we do, and the Welsh and the Scots for that matter, but the Irish for sure.”
Gaillard insisted the current status quo, with English and French clubs outgunning their Pro12 rivals financially and ruling Europe as a consequence, was not what EPCR wanted when it forced the break up of the Heineken Cup and its Dublin-based governing body ERC three years ago.
“I can guarantee you that is absolutely not what we want. We want a truly European tournament. We want the Irish to be successful.
“Is there imbalance here and there because of the money floating back into the Leagues? Certainly. But is the format of our competition preventing provinces from being strong? Absolutely not, and it’s in no-one’s interest for the competition to end up as a French or English (tournament), absolutely not.”
Gaillard and EPCR also want to move away from the current broadcast model of split pay per view coverage in Ireland and the UK when the next television rights deal comes around in 2019. Sky Sports and BT Sports currently share coverage, meaning rugby followers have to take two separate subscriptions to watch their sides compete on the European stage. The director general added he would like the level of free to air Champions Cup coverage increased in Ireland.
“We are working very hard with our current broadcast partners to improve the situation wherever we can. Is it fair to assume we will revert back to a single pay-per-view broadcaster in the UK? I think so. We’re certainly working on that scenario, as we are working on a scenario of more free-to-air coverage.”
Gaillard added: “I think we will treat Ireland separately, what we’re going to do, but more free to air coverage in Ireland is where we would start.
“Early days again but that would be an objective.
“Not split pay per view anyway. It could be a free-to-air broadcaster, and a pay-per-view broadcaster, as we have in France for instance. But not two pay-per-view broadcasters. It is not working well for us at the moment.”
The EPCR boss also indicated that following this season’s Champions and Challenge Cup finals in Edinburgh next May, his organisation was looking to move beyond its traditional centres for a finals venue in 2018 and beyond.
“That’s the intention. Of the expressions of interests we have received some of them were coming from markets where we’ve never hosted finals before. We’ve received expressions of interest from new cities in our traditional markets but yes, there’s an intention to go to new places clearly and I’m confident that as of 2018 that is exactly what will happen.
“Italy is a place to start. Spain would be another one and there’s a couple more as well that could be of interest but we’ll focus on those two first.”
Gaillard did not rule out a future final taking place outside of Europe but said that was a longer-term proposition.
“It’s still within Europe, simply because we’re gradually building the process but within the next two or three years we’ll have a process that will reach out at least to those new continents.
“Will we have a final in the near term in North America, in Asia, in Africa? I don’t know, but right now it’s about new places in Europe for the short term.”
Meanwhile,World Rugby has launched the process of officially reviewing the sport’s controversial three-year residency rule.
Under Regulation 8 of the World Rugby Handbook, players can qualify to play Test rugby for a nation by living in that country for a period of three years.
World Rugby has now made moved to formally scrutinise Regulation 8 by announcing a working group will be established in order to determine whether the current regulation is fit for purpose.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
