The Heineken Cup has survived. Five of the six European unions have reached an agreement that sees the 20 team tournament continue next year but as of the moment it seems it will not feature any English teams.
It will however include French sides, after the FFR came back on board today following a meeting with the other unions. The IRFU have posted a statement on their website saying:
A meeting was held in Dublin today, attended by FFR, FIR, IRFU, SRU and WRU, to discuss the on-going issues surrounding European club competitions.
All five Unions believe that it is critical to the interests of the game in Europe that the Unions are at the heart of the governance of cross-border club competitions given that rugby in each country is organised in a pyramidical structure.
Clubs, provinces and regional organisations form an integral part of the development of the game throughout this structure, from grassroots to the international game. Cross-border club competitions must not conflict with the development of the sport in Europe by Unions, this being in the best interest of players, spectators and the sport in general.
The five Unions reconfirmed:
• Their agreement with the new competition formats and financial distribution formula previously agreed by the six Unions who attended the mediated meeting in Dublin on 23-24 October (http://www.ercrugby.com/news/25300.php ).Following today's discussions, the five Unions have agreed the following:
• A European club competition is to take place during the 2014/2015 season following an optimised sporting and economic format with 20 teams, no matter how many countries are involved.
• The competition will be driven by the existing organisation (currently named ERC) which will remain in charge of the centralised sale and management of all commercial rights, amongst other things.
• Discussions over governance will be pursued in order to optimise the internal functioning of the existing organisation (currently named ERC).
• The common aim is to move eventually towards the integration of European competitions within an all-encompassing European rugby framework.
