An idea to change ERC competitions

[Croket66]

This is my idea :
Heineken Cup with 16 teams (french top 5, english top 5, Pro12 top 5 and the winner of Amlin Cup)
Why ?

• teams like Zebre haven't level to play H Cup
• these teams allow other team of the pool to acces 1/4 final as "best 2th"
• qualif' as "best 2th make no sense
• H Cup need to be more elitist

Amlin Cup with 32 teams

• An european competition should welcome more european nations (Spain, Romania + Georgia, Russia, Portugal)
• french and english teams will not growl because all Top14 and Premiership teams will play an european competition
• italians Super10 teams will not growl because they will have their 4 teams again

Well, thanks to final 2011-2012 rankings, and ERC ranking to make pools (http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/ranking.php), this is what can be these competitions

Heineken Cup[TABLE="class: grid, width: 800"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]POOL 1[/TD]
[TD]POOL 2[/TD]
[TD]POOL 3[/TD]
[TD]POOL 4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Leinster Rugby (IRL)[/TD]
[TD]Stade Toulousain (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Biarritz Olympique (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Munster Rugby (IRL)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Harlequins (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Leicester Tigers (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Northampton Saints (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]ASM Clermont (FRA)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]RC Toulon (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Ospreys (WAL)[/TD]
[TD]Llanelli Scarlets (WAL)[/TD]
[TD]Glasgow Warriors (SCO)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Exeter Chiefs (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Montpellier HRC (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Castres Olympique (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Saracens RFC (ENG)[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

Amlin Cup
[TABLE="class: grid, width: 800"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]POOL 1[/TD]
[TD]POOL 2[/TD]
[TD]POOL 3[/TD]
[TD]POOL 4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Cardiff Blues (WAL)[/TD]
[TD]Ulster Rugby (IRL)[/TD]
[TD]Stade Français (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Edinburgh Rugby (SCO)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Worcester Worriors (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Zèbre (ITA)[/TD]
[TD]Newport Gwent Dragons (WAL)[/TD]
[TD]London Irish (ENG)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Union Bordeaux-Bègles (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]SU Agen (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]London Welsh (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Aviron Bayonnais (FRA)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rugby Mogliano (ITA)[/TD]
[TD]RCM Timisoara (ROM)[/TD]
[TD]Melrose RFC (SCO)[/TD]
[TD]CDUL Lisboa (POR)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]POOL 5[/TD]
[TD]POOL 6[/TD]
[TD]POOL 7[/TD]
[TD]POOL 8[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]London Wasps (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]USA Perpignan (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Bath Rugby (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Gloucester RFC (ENG)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Benetton Treviso (ITA)[/TD]
[TD]Sale Sharks (ENG)[/TD]
[TD]Connacht Rugby (IRL)[/TD]
[TD]Racing-Métro 92 (FRA)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]FC Grenoble (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Rugby Calvisano (ITA)[/TD]
[TD]Stade Montois (FRA)[/TD]
[TD]Cavalieri I Prato (ITA)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gernika RT (ESP)[/TD]
[TD]Armia Tbilissi (GEO)[/TD]
[TD]Rugby Rovigo (ITA)[/TD]
[TD]Enisey-STM (RUS)[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

An european competition should welcome more european nations (Spain, Romania + Georgia, Russia, Portugal)

This I like. I disagree with reducing the Hcup in size.

Rugby shouldn't go down the path of football but if there's one thing UEFA have got right over the last few years, it's opening up the Champions League to more teams from smaller countries. It has been successful with, for example, a Cypriot team making the knockout stage just last year. Nobody really cares about the Europa League nor do people give a crap about the Amlin Cup. Increasing the size of the Amlin won't make people care about it, it'll just increase the number of indifferent teams. That won't help Georgian, Russian, Portugese, Spanish and Romanian clubs improve.

Rather than cutting the size of the HCup to a select few countries (which this proposal and the Premiership's proposal seek to do) and divide up the pot to an elite bunch of teams, I'd like to see more long term thinking whereby the stakeholders in the ERC wish to increase the market by trying to get Italian, Scottish and European Nations Cup teams up to standard.

The 16 or 20 team path will give too much power to the French, English and Irish clubs and will never see the club game expand beyond it's current power base. It's extremely short termist in outlook which I suppose is the way the traditional powers have been since the inception of the sport.