The International Rugby Board (IRB) and England’s Premiership clubs appeared to be on a collision course on Wednesday as the global governing body signaled its opposition to an Anglo-French breakaway from the European Cup.
Both the European Cup and the second-tier European Challenge Cup face an uncertain future now that English and French clubs have given notice to quit the existing European Rugby Cup (ERC) competition structure at the end of the season, amid a row over revenue distribution, qualification procedures and broadcast rights.
A European Cup without English and French clubs would leave a tournament made up of the same sides that compete in the domestic Celtic League, although there have been suggestions that South African provincial teams could fill the gap caused by an Anglo-French breakaway.
Photo: AFP
However, IRB chief executive Brett Gosper insisted on Wednesday that rugby’s ruling body wanted a pan-European competition for the continent’s leading clubs to continue beyond this season and was not prepared to sanction an Anglo-French tournament.
“We don’t believe in an Anglo-French competition in itself. We strongly believe it should be a European competition and that’s what we would be supporting and throwing our weight behind,” Gosper said.
“A full European competition is the right thing for the game of rugby in terms of development, growth and so on. That’s how we see it,” said the 54-year-old Australian, who played for Paris’ Racing Club.
“We urge all of those parties to get together and find some common ground because we believe it’s in the interests of the game to do so,” he added.
The English Premiership, while insisting that teams from the other nations competing in the European Cup — Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy — are welcome to join them, reiterated on Wednesday that the present situation is unsustainable and, at the very least, they will proceed with an Anglo-French event.
“On 10 September 2013, Premiership Rugby issued a statement confirming that the English and French clubs were instigating new competitions after the conclusion of unsuccessful ERC negotiations,” their latest statement said.
“The clubs see no purpose in new discussions starting as late as the end of October 2013, as proposed earlier this week [by ERC]. The proposals from the French and English clubs for two new, strong competitions of 20 teams in each were tabled more than a year ago,” it added.
“The clubs reaffirmed their instruction to Premiership Rugby to take immediate action to put in place a competition for the 2014/15 season onwards to include the French and English clubs, and for this competition to be open to teams from other countries. It was confirmed that this should be progressed with urgency,” the statement said.
The Premiership’s French equivalent, the Top 14, have long said they will not play in a European competition where no English clubs are involved.
Gosper was speaking at a news conference in London to mark two years until the 2015 World Cup in England, a milestone that has been overshadowed by the ongoing row over the future of the European Cup.
Nevertheless, he was confident of a resolution and insisted the dispute was a sign of the growing strength of rugby union, not a weakness.
“We’re confident the different parties involved will find some common ground and that it won’t impact on the World Cup,” Gosper said.
“This is a negotiation where parties are seeking to get more than they had in the past. It’s a normal process. This is a young professional sport. The international game is growing, the club game is growing. Both sides have to accept the perspective of the other in order to reach some common ground,” he added.
“No one likes these sorts of disputes to play out publicly, but then again they’re the symptom of a very healthy growing sport and a sport that everyone’s interested in,” Gosper said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later