€4.2m cash demand makes Italians say arrivederci to Magners League hopes

ITALIAN rugby has given up its bid to join the Magners League next season, with a statement from the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) blaming the league board's demands for €3 million as an entry fee.

The demands were originally made at a meeting on 7 January attended by Magners League chairman John Hussy and director of operations David Jordan. FIR president Giancarlo Dondi was said to be furious after claiming that the Magners representatives had moved the goalposts on the conditions to be met before two Italian teams could enter the league in September.

Along with a vast array of requirements regarding facilities, squad strength, player numbers, etc, the Magners board justified their financial demands by stating that the money was to compensate the existing clubs for the extra expense involved in playing two Italian teams. Reports from Italy put these payments at ?1.5m per team, ?3m in total. This money would have been split between the ten existing Magners teams.

Furthermore the current Magners television pot is said to amount to 6m. This works out at 600,000 per team so, according to one source, the Italians were being asked to contribute a further 600,000 per team to join, making an additional 1.2m on top of the ?3m they were already being asked to stump up; a total sum amounting to almost ?4.2m.

The idea was that in future years this financial contribution would be taken up by some big-name sponsor but rugby captures the interest of a tiny minority in Italy and no-one is knocking the door down in their hurry to sign up.

But the financial demands were just one hurdle to the deal, which would also have necessitated four extra league weekends to accommodate the two Italian clubs. These would eat into both the autumn series and the Six Nations.

The most likely compromise now is for Italy to maintain the domestic Top Ten league but enter the two "superclubs", Viadana and Treviso, into the Heineken Cup. In compensation for losing out on Magners League entry Dondi will probably ask for Magners votes at European Rugby Cup board level to help make this happen.

Shoe-horning two Italian teams into the Magners League was never a natural fit, and the Magners Board are left looking a bit sheepish for having allowed the idea to gain currency.

The whole thing has been horribly mishandled, the Italians feel snubbed and the Celtic nations had better not need their votes at the International Rugby Board's Dublin offices any time soon.