Mediators called in to help resolve the row over the future of top-level European club rugby insisted “progress has been made on a number issues” following a two-day meeting in Dublin.
The future of both the European Cup and the second-tier European Challenge Cup was thrown into doubt last month when leading English and French clubs announced plans for breakaway tournaments free from the control of existing organisers European Rugby Cup — a body controlled by the continent’s leading national unions rather than the clubs.
English and French clubs have long complained that Celtic League teams have an unfair advantage in European competition as most of them are guaranteed entry, whereas Premiership and Top 14 teams have to fight hard just to qualify.
Only the top six in England and France are guaranteed a place in the European Cup, whereas at least 10 Celtic League sides — including both Scottish, both Italians and a minimum of three each from Wales and Ireland — have a free pass into the competition.
But, following a Dublin meeting attended by representatives of Europe’s leading unions – England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France and Italy — independent mediators Graeme Mew and Stephen Drymer delivered a statement that appeared to go some way to meeting Anglo-French club concerns.
The national unions re-affirmed their backing for of two European tournaments, each made up of 20 teams, and a possible third-tier event.
They also called for “meritocratic” qualification from the three leagues into the European Cup based on six teams each from England and France, with seven from the Celtic League.
Revenues would be divided one third, one third, one third per league “with the stipulation that monies to be received by the Pro12 (Celtic) countries would not be less than the current levels.”
However, there was no reference in their statement to the future role, if any of ERC, and, significantly, the meeting was boycotted by leading English and French clubs who are continuing to press head with their plans for a Rugby Champions Cup that would replace the existing European Cup and European Challenge Cup tournaments next season.
Earlier this week the Anglo-French breakaway plan received support from Wales’s four regional teams — Cardiff Blues, Ospreys, Newport Gwent Dragons and the Scarlets — which further undermined ERC’s position.
The English Premiership and France’s Ligue National de Rugby feel they are perfectly within their rights to launch a new event having long ago announced their intention to serve a two-year notice period which expires when the existing agreement governing ERC tournaments expires at the end of this season.
“Progress has been made on a number of issues relating to the future of European club rugby competition,” Mew and Drymer said in their statement on Thursday.
