French to boycott ERC

Trout 63 · Post by **Trout 63** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:16 am

Amazing what you find when you can't sleep...

From a French site - translated using Google
eg la Coupe d'Europe = the Cut of Europe
But I think you'll get the idea of this.

QUOTE
France will boycott the Cut of Europe!

Press release of the National League of Rugby

16/1/2007
by LNR

Cuts of Europe
Decision of the Management Committee of the National League of Rugby

Paris, Tuesday January 16, 2007

The “agreements of Paris” concluded in 1999, fixing the organization of the Cuts of Europe and the ERC for 8 seasons, are completed at the end of season 2006/2007.

As of November 2005 the LNR has, jointly with the English league the First Rugby, taken the initiative to request the release of the negotiations for the concluding of a new agreement for the future seasons.

The proposals of the LNR and a First Rugby presented as of the first meeting in January 2006 rested on a greater implication of the professional leagues in the organization of the Cuts of Europe and its managment, in particular through the participation of the leagues in the shareholding of the ERC, their voting rights and the organization of the commissions of the ERC.

After several months of discussions, these principles had been accepted including by the English federation (RFU). This one calls upon today the absence of agreement between it and the First Rugby, calling into question the negotiations which had intervened.

Since this date, the discussions are blocked because of the internal divergences in England, which are attached to a total renegotiation of the particular agreement binding the RFU and the First Rugby which exceeds the only framework of the Cuts of Europe.

In addition, within sight of the positions held at the last meetings, this blocking more largely raises a major uncertainty on the conditions under which England will be represented out of Cuts of Europe in the future, and thus on the place of the structures of clubs in European professional Rugby.

The last meeting of January 10, in which the representatives of the LNR did not take part, did nothing but confirm the situation of blocking.

In front of the gravity and the urgency of the situation, the LNR consulted the whole of the presidents of the SIGNAL 14 who unanimously indicated that the conditions were not met so that the LNR engages in a new agreement for more than one year on the Cuts of Europe and this fact that the French clubs would not take part the next season in it.

The Management Committee was thus joined together in urgency Tuesday January 16 to examine this situation.

Taking note of the unanimous position of the clubs of SIGNAL 14 and considering that the LNR must relay this collective position, the Management Committee considered:

- that conditions fixed by the leagues French and English for the concluding of a new agreement on the organization of the Cuts of Europe for the future seasons (and initially the participation of the leagues in the shareholding of the ERC) are not joined together.

- that the LNR and the French clubs to date do not have any guarantee on the conditions of representation of England in the Cuts of medium-term Europe, and thus on the place of the professional leagues and the structures of clubs.

The Management Committee of the LNR thus decided taking into account the dead end in which are the negotiations, which in the current state of the situation:

- the LNR will not engage in a new agreement on the organization of the Cuts of Europe for the future seasons

- consequently that the French clubs will not engage in the European competitions organized by the ERC the next season

The LNR regrets being brought to make such a decision, whereas the French clubs have been fully invested in this competition for several years, and that the League tests since always founding a dialogue of confidence between the various international structures concerned with professional Rugby.

UNQUOTE

So if there is a breakaway from RFU... Who fancies a league involving the senior English Clubs that may be excluded by RFU with the likes of Biarritz, Toulouse, Stade, Perpignan, Clermont??????

They seem to want to be involved only if the English are. It's going to be an interesting few months while this is all sorted out, starting with the RFU and Premier Rugby!

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:32 am

The Guardian agrees:

http://tinyurl.com/3xz6ky

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:07 am

And from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/6269979.stm

Tom Tom · Post by **Tom Tom** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:32 am

dailywaffle wrote:And from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/6269979.stm

I QUOTE ONE PIECE FROM THE ARTICLE REFERRED TO ABOVE:

..........And former France international full-back and LNR president Serge Blanco says his organisation was left with no choice but to take drastic action.

.........."Next season in England 10 of the 22 rounds in the Premiership will be played during international weekends, which is ridiculous.

ITS MORE THAN RIDICULOUS

MurphysLaw · Post by **MurphysLaw** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:40 am

Imo the French and particularly Blanco have got this right. To play almost half of the league games whilst the World cup is on is ridiculous. Why don't the PRL follow the French lead, suspend the ERC,(Without the French the ERC loses credibility anyway), and play the english league after the world cup.
The downside for the clubs is the drop in revenue the ERC brings,but surely it would be worth it the longer term, and give some credibility to the league.

Trout 63 · Post by **Trout 63** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:10 am

Apologies - Just realised I didn't give a link to the site where I found this.

http://www.lnr.fr/ - in French

http://tinyurl.com/2rt2jy -Translated to English

Further insight from Blanco
QUOTE Blanco has alleged that the RFU went back on an agreement to split equally its shareholding with the Premiership clubs, which is the case in France.

"The RFU changed their mind," Blanco claims. "Had they not done so, we would have signed the new agreement for the future of the Heineken Cup.

"But now there is too much uncertainty about the future of the English clubs." UNQUOTE

Looks like Premier Rugby and League Nationale de Rugby are singing from the same hymn sheet.

As has been said above - will devalue the Cup enormously and I can't imagine Heineken N.V. will be impressed given the amount of money they throw at the competition.

Lansdowne RFC · Post by **Lansdowne RFC** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:46 pm

Personally, I think the French (and Serge Blanco) have got this badly wrong. They just can not seem to seem out their domestic league with fixtures and the like, so are taking this out on the HEC? It's absurd that they play no games in and around the 6 Nations, and 1 game in the Christmas period? Statistics show from a range of sports that ticket sales from Christmas period are considerably higher than any other time in the season.

Also, the average French attendence last season in the league was 9'100, and in the HEC, it's just over 11'500. This proves the fans care more for Europe, than the national league. And it's very short sighted of Blanco to say the French sides don't need Europe. Toulouse don't win the Top14 very often, yet how come they have the best academy and training facilities in Europe? The Heineken Cup.

The H-Cup is one of the greatest sporting successes of the past 20 years. It's grown from nowhere, and now you have packed stadia everywhere, and matches moving to Spain and Switzerland. This will kill European rugby just because the French are so arrogant and confused about their national league. The HEC is best tournament in club rugby, by a distance.

Personally, I think the English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian sides should plough on next season. Show them what their missing. This could be their bargaining tool also, as there was meant to be a meeting in Dublin tomorrow anyway.

The world could make a fool of Blanco, and boycott the world cup?

Osprey in Leicester · Post by **Osprey in Leicester** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:59 pm

Lansdowne RFC wrote:Personally, I think the French (and Serge Blanco) have got this badly wrong. They just can not seem to seem out their domestic league with fixtures and the like, so are taking this out on the HEC? It's absurd that they play no games in and around the 6 Nations, and 1 game in the Christmas period? Statistics show from a range of sports that ticket sales from Christmas period are considerably higher than any other time in the season.

Also, the average French attendence last season in the league was 9'100, and in the HEC, it's just over 11'500. This proves the fans care more for Europe, than the national league. And it's very short sighted of Blanco to say the French sides don't need Europe. Toulouse don't win the Top14 very often, yet how come they have the best academy and training facilities in Europe? The Heineken Cup.

The H-Cup is one of the greatest sporting successes of the past 20 years. It's grown from nowhere, and now you have packed stadia everywhere, and matches moving to Spain and Switzerland. This will kill European rugby just because the French are so arrogant and confused about their national league. The HEC is best tournament in club rugby, by a distance.

Personally, I think the English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian sides should plough on next season. Show them what their missing. This could be their bargaining tool also, as there was meant to be a meeting in Dublin tomorrow anyway.

The world could make a fool of Blanco, and boycott the world cup?

If it makes for a more structured season then it may be a good thing, at least the French have brought up the issue of having such a hotch potch season and are doing something about it. On the other hand it may be a good time to start up a British League.

Lansdowne RFC · Post by **Lansdowne RFC** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:16 pm

By British league, do you mean English, Scottish and Welsh, and exclude the Irish ones, or was it a typo saying British?

I can think of one big reason why a united league of Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh sides won't work... Too many sides with centrally controlled contracts. Respective unions won't allow Irish, Welsh and Scottish players to participate in every game. It would be won every year by an English side because for the first 5 weeks you'd see skeleton sides from everyone else.

Another reason is it would give ammunition to the RFU to abolish relegation.... Imagine 14 side league with Leicester, Wasps, Glaws, Bath, Sarries, Sale, Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Llanelli, Cardiff, Ospreys, Edinburgh and Glasgow?
No promotion, it would destroy Connacht, Dragons, Borders, as well as a host of English sides. Maybe put in L.Irish or Quins for Glasgow, but many traditional professional sides would go under

Osprey in Leicester · Post by **Osprey in Leicester** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:26 pm

Lansdowne RFC wrote:By British league, do you mean English, Scottish and Welsh, and exclude the Irish ones, or was it a typo saying British?

I can think of one big reason why a united league of Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh sides won't work... Too many sides with centrally controlled contracts. Respective unions won't allow Irish, Welsh and Scottish players to participate in every game. It would be won every year by an English side because for the first 5 weeks you'd see skeleton sides from everyone else.

Another reason is it would give ammunition to the RFU to abolish relegation.... Imagine 14 side league with Leicester, Wasps, Glaws, Bath, Sarries, Sale, Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Llanelli, Cardiff, Ospreys, Edinburgh and Glasgow?
No promotion, it would destroy Connacht, Dragons, Borders, as well as a host of English sides. Maybe put in L.Irish or Quins for Glasgow, but many traditional professional sides would go under

I meant British & Irish, its only the Irish who have central contacts at the moment I believe and obviously that would be a sticking point, ideally the power needs to be taken away from the IRU so that the provinces can pick who they want.

Lansdowne RFC · Post by **Lansdowne RFC** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:42 pm

As far as I know, the Scottish do too. I remember there was a bit of uproar there at the end of last season when Frank Hadden pulled 30 players from the last 2 weeks of the C.L. for pre-conditioning before the tour to South Africa.
I also thought the Welsh RFU had a degree of control over it's players too?

Unfortuantly the control will never be taken out of the hands of the IRFU. They own the contracts to every Irish player on this isalnd, and these guys are a considerable commodity. Other issues would also need to be ironed out. We do have a slightly different policy on the number of foreign players, and the whole salary cap might price sides like Edinburgh out of the market?

TV issues would be a concern too. Sky usually shows just 1 match per weekend, whereas Setanta can show 3.

I think we're getting slightly ahead of ourselves here too. Hopefully this is just a bargaining tool by the French. Nothing beats a weekend in Aprilin Toulouse

Capricorn · Post by **Capricorn** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:42 pm

Apart from the economics of the HK, there are those of us who just enjoy seeing players from other countries, and how they perform. If the French back out then much of the flair, passion and physicality will be lost. I should be sorry to see it go, as it's the best competition by far.

Capricorn · Post by **Capricorn** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:44 pm

Apart from the economics of the HK, there are those of us who just enjoy seeing players from other countries, and how they perform. If the French back out then much of the flair, passion and physicality will be lost. I should be sorry to see it go, as it's the best competition by far.

4 · Post by 4 » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:46 pm

I think this is actually really positive. In the short its obviosul an issue. However, its these kind of sensible decisions by international actors that actually mean that things have to happen. decisions have to be taken. things have to change. Hopefully, this movement will create the momentum needed to change the game's structure etc. for the better.

And at worse we can have an roastbeef-frog cup can't we, would be much better than the edf jobby!

Adroit · Post by **Adroit** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:08 pm

The competition will be absolutely worthless without the French sides in it.

We really need to get our house in order before we start trying to dictate anything about the European competitions.

Add this to our inevitable humiliation in the RWC next year and the Rugby World will think that the Frenchies were absolutely spot on with this decision.