French vision for European rugby will give pathway for progression

This is evidenced by the fact that in the seventies and eighties France alone

annually played Romania, then the leading minor international European team.

Fira has long complained, with good reason, that the Six Nations is a closed

shop, as are the club tournaments that underpin it.

Paul Goze, president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, the body made up of the

clubs in the top two divisions in France, has said that the French want a

Uefa-style body, based in Geneva, to run European club rugby and remove the

elitist approach of the Six Nations Committee.

It is on this basis that the French have said they will play one more year in

the Heineken Cup.

The choice of Switzerland as opposed to Dublin is not just for tax reasons; it

is to remove the physical proximity of European club rugby from the

International Rugby Board and the Six Nations Committee (both based in

Dublin) and especially the Irish influence about which the French and

English have complained for many years.

The Irish, especially their tame media, hysterically denounce any move away

from this convenient arrangement as greedy, knowing full well that their

influence will dissipate if this geographical link is severed.

What is most appealing about the French vision is that it will include a

determined pathway for other Unions and their clubs to progress up the

ladder.

Moreover, and this is what many of the Six Nations Committee fear, it will

make the creation of a second tier Six Nations inevitable.

The monetary and playing strength of Unions like Russia should not be

underestimated and in a competent, democratic structure they should not be

feared either. Alas, we do not live in such an egalitarian rugby world.

European rugby needs all its Unions and clubs, including the English, in its

competitions and a clearly mapped progression route like football.

So, the English have played their hand and appear to have lost. The English

game cannot go for long without a meaningful step between domestic and

international rugby and if Premiership rugby Chief Mark McCafferty does not

have a plan B the English have planned and executed their strategy badly.

They have a pot of BT money but no apparent way of properly exploiting it.

That said; Sky will not be happy that the English market, which is by far

their largest subscriber base, will be hit by no English presence in their

key club rugby product.

The English Premiership should not be held solely culpable for the present

unsatisfactory situation. A competent governing body would not have allowed

this to happen.

The changes to qualification and monetary distribution offered by the Unions

through ERC only came because of the English and French clubs giving proper

notice under the previous tournament agreement.

To pretend otherwise, as the Celtic Unions are now doing, is simply dishonest.

They could and should have been offered earlier and had they been we probably

wouldn’t be in this unholy mess.

Goze has said that in future the Heineken Cup would be run commercially by

the leagues, by which he means the clubs and that “If the unions do not

concede that, there will be no competition.”

This should be read in conjunction with the opaque tag-on paragraph which was

in the statement from Dublin last month that “The common aim is to move

eventually towards the integration of European competitions within an

all-encompassing European rugby framework.”

What the hell that means is anybody’s guess but anyone who views the present

dispute without understanding this background, and the desire of the cosy

elite to remain cosy, is naive.

Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-league-snedden-increases-stake-widnes-210150201--spt.html

French vision for European rugby will give pathway for progression