Rugby: Talks but no action in Heineken cup row

SRU chief executive Mark Dodson and former president Ian McLauchlan joined forces with counterparts from across Europe to listen to English clubs’ plans for a new Heineken Cup, but returned last night preparing for round two in what is set to be an intense debate.

The meeting called at European Rugby Cup (ERC) headquarters in Dublin was an attempt to bring the widely-touted plans of Premiershup Rugby Ltd (PRL) back out of the media and around the negotiating table. PRL first mooted the idea of breaking up the existing Heineken Cup when the current agreement comes to an end in 2014, in June, and were backed by French club representatives, who are similarly concerned at the increasing dominance of the Heineken Cup by Celtic, and in particular Irish clubs. They insist that the qualification process favours the RaboDirect PRO12 clubs as almost all are automatically included in the Heineken Cup, and so resting players during the PRO12 season does not damage their European hopes, and can, in fact, enhance them.

The argument from PRO12 unions is that they represent four nations, and to cut qualifying to just six teams – as the English and French propose – could leave some countries, notably Italy and Scotland, without any representatives. The PRL, however, ignited a fire last week when they announced, on the same day that ERC revealed a new four-year broadcast deal with SKY, that they had signed a four-year £152m contract with BT Vision to cover all the English clubs’ Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cup games.

All the home unions and Italy and France reacted strongly to that, insisting that the rights were not the PRL’s to sell, but belonged to the RFU as has always been the case. And so we came to yesterday’s meeting. Following five hours of discussion on PRL’s proposals between 17 executives, it was agreed that a further meeting will be held in Rome on 8 October to allow each union to discuss the issues in more detail at home before coming back to the debating chamber.

An ERC statement read: “Representatives of ERC stakeholders met in Dublin today to begin the formulation of a new Accord which provides for the structure and format of European club rugby tournaments for the 2014/15 season and beyond.

“The meeting included productive discussions regarding the future of the club game in Europe with a general resolve among all stakeholders to reach agreement towards a new Accord.

“It was decided that all parties would continue the consultative process at a meeting in Rome on 8 October 2012. With the objective of creating an opportunity for a positive outcome for 
European club competitions, it was agreed that there would be limited comment from stakeholders at this time. The current Accord, which was agreed by all stakeholders in 2007, includes a provision for parties to confirm their intention to seek a renegotiation while the structure and format of both tournaments remain in place for a further two years until the end of the 2013/14 season. ERC received formal applications on 1 June 2012 from the Federation Francaise de Rugby, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby and Premiership Rugby for such a renegotiation.”

There are various scenarios and a compromise deal remains the most likely outcome, with qualification introduced to the RaboDirect PRO12 in some form. But the ERC unions are keen to remain with Sky, despite the PRL’s insistence yesterday that the BT Vision deal would mean more money for all unions.

As ever, the arguments come back to money. The vast majority of English clubs are struggling to cope with players’ salaries. Ironically England and France have inflated the market significantly over the past 15 years and still rely on benefactors’ investment keeping them afloat.

The PRL’s plan seeks to cut the share of money given to the RaboDirect unions. The ERC, which was set up by the various rugby unions in 1995 to organise and to run European club rugby tournaments, has doubled income to a current level of £41m, from broadcast deals, sponsorship and match revenue for the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup finals, and Heineken Cup semi-finals.

The RaboDirect unions share 52 per cent, and the English and French clubs receive 24 per cent each, but the PRL now propose cutting the RaboDirect share to 33 per cent, and lifting the English and French to the same split.