English rugby is to blame for French clubs boycotting next season's European Cup, according to France's National Rugby League (LNR) president Serge Blanco.
This week, Blanco decided to pull France's top clubs out of the continent's top club competition to protect his country's domestic game.
But speaking in French sports newspaper l'Equipe, Blanco insisted fixture congestion was not the deciding factor, as many had believed.
"No, above all it's the fault of the English Rugby federation (RFU)," said Blanco when asked if a heavy schedule was to blame.
At present the European Cup is run by the national federations of the participating European rugby nations.
But top clubs, who run their own domestic leagues such as the French Top 14 and the English Premiership, want more of a say in the running of the competition.
Over the last few months they had been trying to renegotiate the Paris Accord -- statutes and regulations that govern the European Cup.
However, according to Blanco, the English RFU refused to hand over any share of it's control to English clubs.
"If the RFU, which to begin with had agreed, like the FFR (French Rugby Federation), to give up 50 percent of it's part [of control] to its clubs, we would have committed regardless of the difficulties it would have presented to our calender," added Blanco. "But their refusal threw everything up in the air."
The problem is more wide-ranging than simply a dispute between clubs and their federations, though, with fixture congestion and television revenues major issues.
But perhaps most important is the club versus country dispute.
Already clubs lose their top players several times a year to the national set-ups for international matches.
Blanco believes that, much like football in Europe, it is the domestic leagues which are paramount to the growth and success of the sport on a global scale.
And he is wary of the International Rugby Board's (IRB) reported plans to introduce a World Cup every two years, rather than four.
"They [the IRB] are going to dry up the source. Rugby cannot continue to survive if the economic forces representing English and French clubs is diminished," he said. "Sometimes we complain about the number of foreign players [in our leagues] but it is our championships that allow the teams such as Argentina and Italy to have competitive players and for Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Romania to even exist."
"I don't think rugby can develop if it adopts a comparable model to volleyball with multiple international tournaments," he added.
It is not yet clear what impact France's boycott of next year's competition will have.
English clubs boycotted the tournament in 1998-99 but returned a year later, although they too have threatened to boycott next season's competition.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Liverpool on Tuesday suffered an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers as Andre’s stoppage-time strike sealed a dramatic victory for the English Premier League’s bottom club. Arne Slot’s side fell behind to Rodrigo Gomes’ strike in the closing stages at Molineux. Mohamed Salah hauled Liverpool level with his first goal in 11 top-flight games dating back to November last year. However, Andre’s first goal for Wolves inflicted the latest humbling loss in a chastening season for Liverpool. It was the first time the Premier League’s bottom club had beaten the reigning champions since Crystal Palace defeated Chelsea in 2017. Liverpool
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
RSS