European clubs oppose global rugby season
Plans to introduce a global rugby season could be thwarted by opposition from European clubs, according to reports.
Ten national unions want to introduce club seasons running from either February to September, or December to July, to align the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere seasons.
World Rugby is keen to introduce a Nations Cup tournament, based around matches between Six Nations teams and southern hemisphere Rugby Championship unions.
A global season would require the realignment of the current English Premiership, French Top 14 and, possibly, PRO14 competitions to allow for globally consistent international test windows. New Zealander Warren Gatland, coach of the Chiefs Super Rugby team and the British and Irish Lions, has said ‘‘it’s now or never’’ for a global season.
A report in England’s Sunday Times, however, has claimed European club representatives will oppose the plan at World Rugby’s Professional Game Forum online conference on Monday (Tuesday NZ time).
Paul Goze, president of Ligue National de Rugby (LNR), which represents France’s professional clubs, will lead the opposition, the report stated.
It said Goze had support from some English club owners and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), which oversees the European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions.
Goze outlined his opposition in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He said a six-month club season was ‘‘out of the question’’.
‘‘I would like to know what it adds. Nothing. Just difficulties and problems.
‘‘If we start in January, we would play throughout the summer with problems including ticket sales, television, sponsors and player safety.
‘‘We would be competing against big global sporting events,’’ he said, citing the Tour de France cycle race and ‘‘the Olympic Games some years’’.
Goze said business shut down in France in the traditional holiday period between mid-July and the end of August.
Goze told AFP rugby needed ‘‘evolution not a revolution’’ with a ‘‘progressive proposal’’ to reforming the season to ‘‘meet the demands of the south without penalising the north’’.
He proposed starting the European club seasons at the beginning of September, playing through October and allowing four weeks in November for Nations Cup matches and the tournament final.
He claimed rugby had to be ‘‘a soap opera that lasts over 10 months, not something reduced to frenzy over six months’’.