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French clubs plan Euro boycott
From correspondents in Paris, c/o Foxsports
January 17, 2007
FRANCE'S leading teams delivered a potentially fatal blow to the European Cup by insisting they would boycott the 2007-08 edition of the continent's leading club rugby union competition in protest at its impact on their domestic season.
France's League Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the umbrella organisation representing the clubs that compete in the country's Top 14 French Championship, said in a statement: "Due to the gravity and urgency of the situation, the LNR has consulted with all the presidents of the Top 14 clubs.
"They have all unanimously indicated the conditions do not exist for the LNR to sign the new agreement governing the European Cup (due to take effect in 2009) and, because of this, French clubs will not be participating in next season's tournament."
The LNR announcement comes after months of negotiation failed to find a solution to the problem of fixture congestion which threatens to become acute in the next northern season.
France, in September and October, will host the Rugby World Cup. This has delayed the start of the French season, making it difficult for championship matches to be played alongside European competitions in a shortened campaign.
Although Top 14 fixtures could take place during the World Cup itself, the LNR believes that would be economically disastrous for its members because of the huge decrease in television and sponsorship revenues.
This is a particular issue for France's elite clubs and their equivalents in the English Premiership.
They are stand-alone businesses, unlike the leading sides in Six Nations rivals Ireland, Scotland and Wales where there is a much closer financial and working relationship between the national union and their country's top teams.
LNR president Serge Blanco, the legendary former France full back, insisted the issue of fixture congestion had left his organisation with no choice but to take drastic action.
"We are convinced that if we did not do this our domestic championship will be dead in 2009," Blanco said the British tabloid the Daily Mail.
And he insisted this was not a French problem alone. "Next season in England 10 of the 22 rounds in the Premiership will be played during international weekends, which is ridiculous. Our championships are losing their value."
There has been a question mark over the European Cup's future in recent weeks with Premiership clubs in conflict with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), England's national governing body, over the amount of control they have in the running and organisation of European competitions.
Last week, rugby chiefs agreed on a new set of rules and regulations for the European Cup following a meeting in Dublin but French clubs refused to take part claiming English teams were stalling the process.
Blanco reportedly alleged the RFU had gone back on an agreement to split equally its shareholding in European Rugby Cup Limited (ERC), the European Cup organisers, with the Premiership clubs - as is the case with the French federation and its teams - and that this was a factor in the Top 14 boycott.
"The RFU changed their mind. Had they not done so, we would have signed the new agreement for the future of the Heineken (European) Cup. But now there is too much uncertainty about the future of the English clubs."
Agence France-Presse