Champions Cup final to be moved away from Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome

EPRC said risk of Covid transmission from cross-border travel required greater flexibility for the choice of venues for the May 21 and 22 finals

EPRC said risk of Covid transmission from cross-border travel required greater flexibility for the choice of venues for the May 21 and 22 finals

Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup organisers have decided that this season’s European finals will not now be played in Marseille.

It is the second year in a row that the Mediterranean port city has seen its plans to stage European club rugby’s biggest weekend disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, though EPCR said Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome would now stage the 2022 finals with Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London scheduled to host the 2023 deciders having originally been slated for this year’s games before the initial wave of the novel coronavirus.

EPCR’s General Assembly met on Wednesday at which its Board made the decision after consultation with local authorities in France.

It concluded that the evolving public health situation and the added risk of transmission from cross-border travel required greater flexibility for the choice of venues for the May 21 and 22 finals.

Competition bosses said they were working with its shareholder leagues and unions to arrive at alternative arrangements “with all contingencies underpinned by the primary concern of protecting the health and welfare of players, club staff, match officials, fans, and the wider rugby community”.

This weekend sees the knockout phase of both cups get underway with a Round of 16 that sees Leinster host Toulon in Dublin on Friday night and Munster welcome Toulouse to Thomond Park the following afternoon in the Champions Cup while both Connacht and Ulster have away trips in the Challenge Cup, the westerners going to Leicester Tigers on Saturday while Dan McFarland’s side visit Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.

The semi-finals will be played at the venues of the home clubs this season with the last-four pairings in both competitions the Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, as well as which clubs will play at home, to be decided by draws following the last of the quarter-finals on Sunday, April 11.

The 2022 finals will now be played in Marseille on May 27 and 28, next year.