New PRO14 entrants ‘not on agenda’ for Champions Cup

Champions Cup boss Vincent Gaillard may be keen to take European club rugby’s showpiece finals into new markets, but he made it clear yesterday the competition will not go looking for additional teams.

Tournament organisers EPCR, of which Gaillard is director general, will stage this season’s final of the Champion Cup, as well as the Continental Shield and Challenge Cup, in the Basque city of Bilbao, in northern Spain, next May.

Newcastle will host the 2019 finals, but the current bidding process for the 2020 stagings has attracted 18 expressions of interest from cities in eight countries, four of which are first-time applicants.

Ireland is not among the potential bidders, as 2020 will see Dublin host games in football’s European Championships.

While Gaillard is excited by the calibre of destinations, he insisted EPCR will not be seeking new applicants for a spot in the Champions Cup draw anytime soon.

That will be seen as knock back to the two South African teams admitted this season to the Guinness PRO14, but the EPCR boss said he felt no pressure to consider their admittance, even if they claim one of the seven automatic qualifying berths in the league table.

“We’re observing it, but it’s not on the agenda at all right now,” said Gaillard. “We have a format that works very well, it’s a format designed for European teams to play in it and that’s where we are now, so there’s absolutely no pressure, whatsoever.

“Whenever, if ever, there’s a request made by either the PRO14 or the South African clubs for them to get into Europe, then we’ll see. We’ll discuss it, but it hasn’t been discussed. We’re just observing at the moment.”

Adding new teams to the Champions Cup would need the unanimous approval of all nine boards representing the six unions and three leagues and they are in favour of building from the bottom up, developing the game in Europe through EPCR’s Continental Shield competition.

“As far as the Champions Cup is concerned, it won’t go any further than the six countries,” said Gaillard.

Meanwhile, EPCR yesterday announced that RTÉ Sport and Newstalk had retained their broadcast radio contracts, each signing three-year rights deals for the Champions Cup.