The French President of the European Rugby Cup has broken the silence surrounding talks on the recently announced TV deals by telling a meeting of French clubs that the deal signed by English clubs and BT Vision was ‘illegal’.
Speaking yesterday after a meeting with the seven French clubs qualified to play in this year’s Heineken Cup, Jean Pierre Lux said that there had been no indication at last week’s Dublin meeting of ERC of how the €190 million revenues were to be split between English domestic and European competitions.  He added that informal talks had been held with French and South African clubs and suggested that there was a prospect of the next agreement on the Heineken and Amlin Cups being run without clubs from England.
ERC has a four year deal with Sky to broadcast exclusive live games from the two marquee competitions, the finals of which will be held in Dublin in May 2013.  This clashes directly with the BT Vision deal that claims exclusive rights on English clubs in Europe.
The next phase of discussion will take place in Rome in October.
The meeting of the French clubs yesterday did confirm that changes to the way clubs qualified for Europe were part of what they wanted from the negotiations.  At present three Welsh, three Irish, two Scottish and two Italian teams qualify for the Heineken Cup regardless of their domestic league performance.
French and English teams must secure a top six finish in their league.  The other two places are reserved for the winners of the two trophies.
There is also a call for less teams and a shortened window of competition, enabling clubs to have longer to concentrate on their home competitions.
The RaboDirect Pro 12 is gaining in support and credibility in Ireland but is still very much seen as a poor relation of the Heineken Cup.  Any reduced schedule in Europe though would lead to less squad rotation, more of the big stars in action earlier in the Pro12 and the end result could actually be a stronger Irish domestic game.
There is a lot more discussion to take place on the future of European Rugby but the clock is ticking and yesterday’s comments suggest it will be a rocky couple of months ahead.
Sport for Business will host a Members’ Round Table on the subject of broadcasting on Tuesday, November 8th.
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