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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Manx" data-source="post: 607316" data-attributes="member: 50236"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/news/10461174/French-manoeuvre-leaves-English-clubs-isolated-over-next-seasons-Heineken-Cup-participation.html" target="_blank">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/news/10461174/French-manoeuvre-leaves-English-clubs-isolated-over-next-seasons-Heineken-Cup-participation.html</a>..some people are on the pitch............they think it is all over...............well it is now........or is it another nothing article!!?[h=1]French manoeuvre leaves English clubs isolated over next season&#039;s Heineken Cup participation[/h][h=2]FFR chief makes Top 14 an offer they probably can&#039;t refuse as only RFU is not&nbsp;&nbsp; invited to Dublin meeting to discuss next season&#039;s Heineken Cup[/h]Hopes of a resolution in the row over the future of European club rugby in&nbsp;&nbsp; time for next season appear to be over, with the protagonists seemingly&nbsp;&nbsp; resigned to rival tournaments taking place next year.&nbsp; Representatives from the French, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian unions are&nbsp;&nbsp; understood to be meeting in Dublin on Thursday to discuss plans to forge&nbsp;&nbsp; ahead with revised versions of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup next&nbsp;&nbsp; season without the participation of the English clubs. Significantly, it is&nbsp;&nbsp; thought that the Rugby Football Union has not been invited.&nbsp; The move comes following a commitment of French representation within the&nbsp;&nbsp; existing European Rugby Cup structure, by French Federation president Pierre&nbsp;&nbsp; Camou, despite the agreement between the Top 14 clubs and their English&nbsp;&nbsp; counterparts to create a new tournament.&nbsp; Camou has reportedly warned the French clubs that no new accord with the&nbsp;&nbsp; French Federation over player release and television rights will be possible&nbsp;&nbsp; unless they withdraw their support for the new Rugby Champions&#039; Cup.&nbsp; Camou has also offered the French clubs €2million (Â£1.68million) each for&nbsp;&nbsp; participating in the ERC tournaments and reportedly set them a deadline of&nbsp;&nbsp; next month to confirm their support or he intends to explore other means of&nbsp;&nbsp; entering French teams through central contracting with the FFR.&nbsp; [h=2]It is understood there is also a strong desire among the Celtic unions for the&nbsp;&nbsp; European tournaments to remain within union control rather than be run by&nbsp;&nbsp; commercially motivated clubs, despite the progress made at last month&#039;s&nbsp;&nbsp; summit over tournament structure and funding.[/h]Privately there appears to be a reluctant acceptance that to maintain that&nbsp;&nbsp; governance principle for the best interests of the game in the long term, it&nbsp;&nbsp; may come at the short-term price of pushing ahead with a tournament without&nbsp;&nbsp; the support of the leading English clubs.&nbsp; There is also a determination that the new Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups&nbsp;&nbsp; will honour the broadcasting deal with Sky Sports.&nbsp; The English clubs, however, remain confident that the leading French clubs, as&nbsp;&nbsp; well as the Welsh regions, who declared their support for the Rugby&nbsp;&nbsp; Champions&#039; Cup last month, will participate in the new tournament, to be&nbsp;&nbsp; broadcast by BT Sport.&nbsp; Premiership Rugby is also prepared to legally challenge any move to block&nbsp;&nbsp; clubs from joining the Rugby Champions&#039; Cup, a position it believes is&nbsp;&nbsp; likely to be strengthened if the respective unions did so while agreeing a&nbsp;&nbsp; new European accord to set up tournaments that would rival it.&nbsp; The prospect of two effectively watered-down European tournaments next season&nbsp;&nbsp; would come as a bitter blow to rugby supporters as well as hamper&nbsp;&nbsp; preparations for the national sides in the build-up to the 2015 <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/" target="_blank">Rugby&nbsp;&nbsp; World Cup</a>.&nbsp; The quality of the existing Heineken Cup matches are seen by the respective&nbsp;&nbsp; national coaches as key proving grounds for preparing for Test matches while&nbsp;&nbsp; the fallout from a potential split is likely to tarnish rugby&#039;s image at a&nbsp;&nbsp; time when the RFU hopes that hosting the World Cup will take the game to a&nbsp;&nbsp; new audience.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Manx, post: 607316, member: 50236"] [URL]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/news/10461174/French-manoeuvre-leaves-English-clubs-isolated-over-next-seasons-Heineken-Cup-participation.html[/URL] ..some people are on the pitch............they think it is all over...............well it is now........or is it another nothing article!!? [h=1]French manoeuvre leaves English clubs isolated over next season's Heineken Cup participation[/h][h=2]FFR chief makes Top 14 an offer they probably can't refuse as only RFU is not invited to Dublin meeting to discuss next season's Heineken Cup[/h]Hopes of a resolution in the row over the future of European club rugby in time for next season appear to be over, with the protagonists seemingly resigned to rival tournaments taking place next year. Representatives from the French, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian unions are understood to be meeting in Dublin on Thursday to discuss plans to forge ahead with revised versions of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup next season without the participation of the English clubs. Significantly, it is thought that the Rugby Football Union has not been invited. The move comes following a commitment of French representation within the existing European Rugby Cup structure, by French Federation president Pierre Camou, despite the agreement between the Top 14 clubs and their English counterparts to create a new tournament. Camou has reportedly warned the French clubs that no new accord with the French Federation over player release and television rights will be possible unless they withdraw their support for the new Rugby Champions’ Cup. Camou has also offered the French clubs €2million (Â£1.68million) each for participating in the ERC tournaments and reportedly set them a deadline of next month to confirm their support or he intends to explore other means of entering French teams through central contracting with the FFR. [h=2]It is understood there is also a strong desire among the Celtic unions for the European tournaments to remain within union control rather than be run by commercially motivated clubs, despite the progress made at last month’s summit over tournament structure and funding.[/h] Privately there appears to be a reluctant acceptance that to maintain that governance principle for the best interests of the game in the long term, it may come at the short-term price of pushing ahead with a tournament without the support of the leading English clubs. There is also a determination that the new Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups will honour the broadcasting deal with Sky Sports. The English clubs, however, remain confident that the leading French clubs, as well as the Welsh regions, who declared their support for the Rugby Champions’ Cup last month, will participate in the new tournament, to be broadcast by BT Sport. Premiership Rugby is also prepared to legally challenge any move to block clubs from joining the Rugby Champions’ Cup, a position it believes is likely to be strengthened if the respective unions did so while agreeing a new European accord to set up tournaments that would rival it. The prospect of two effectively watered-down European tournaments next season would come as a bitter blow to rugby supporters as well as hamper preparations for the national sides in the build-up to the 2015 [B][URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/"]Rugby World Cup[/URL][/B]. The quality of the existing Heineken Cup matches are seen by the respective national coaches as key proving grounds for preparing for Test matches while the fallout from a potential split is likely to tarnish rugby’s image at a time when the RFU hopes that hosting the World Cup will take the game to a new audience. [/QUOTE]

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