Premiership warns Celtic unions not to try to prevent clubs from joining Rugby ...

“It just means to say at the time they are going to have to make a decision.

“If they preclude it, they are going to put their clubs in a very difficult

position and unless they have got a viable alternative for their clubs and

teams then they would be, I suspect, getting increased pressure from those

teams to say ‘if you don’t want us to do that, what is the alternative?’ ”

The Celtic unions’ statements went on to say that they “remain fully committed

to the development of a pan-European rugby competition” and welcomed “the

recent comments made by the IRB chairman [Brett Gosper], who confirmed that

a pan-European tournament remains the goal of the IRB”.

The Rugby Football Union said only that its position had not changed since its

last statement when it said it was seeking a “consensus to benefit all

parties”.

The European Rugby Cup Limited is due to hold negotiations on Oct 23, and has

appointed a mediator, Canadian lawyer Graeme Mew, in an attempt to thrash

out a deal.

McCafferty, however, said Premiership Rugby was no longer in dispute with ERC,

as it had served notice to leave the accord in June 2012.

He wrote to his ERC counterpart Derek McGrath on Monday to confirm his

organisation would not be attending the stakeholder meeting.

“We cannot afford to keep subsidising Celtic rugby,” McCafferty added.

“Over the last five years, if you look at the extra amount they have received

of what might be their natural level of one third [of the tournament

revenues] rather than their current figure of 52 per cent, between us and

the French we have probably put £30million into RaboDirect Pro 12 Rugby.”

McCafferty added that he expected the RFU to support the Premiership clubs’

stance.

Article source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/former-wales-rugby-star-gareth-6060792

Premiership warns Celtic unions not to try to prevent clubs from joining Rugby ...