Heineken Cup given radical new format

European rugby chiefs have come up with a radical new format for the continent’s premier club competition next season with the initial first-round stage to be made up of two 12-team sections.

The Heineken Champions Cup, which will involve both Scottish teams Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, will be bumped up from 20 to 24 teams.

The 2020/21 staging of the tournament will start on the weekend of 11/12/13 December and an EPCR statement said: “The decision to alter the formats for next season on an excep - tional basis has been made against the backdrop of the Covid-19 public health crisis and its ongoing impact on the professional club game in Europe.”

The Heineken Champions Cup will be competed for by 24 clubs with the eight highest-ranked representatives from the Gallagher Premier ship, the Guinness Pro 14 and the

Top 14 securing their places. The clubs will be divided into two pools of 12 by means of a draw and the tournament will be played over eight weekends with four rounds of matches in the pool stage followed by a knockout stage consisting of home and away quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final in Marseille on 22 May 2021.

The four highest-ranked clubs in each 12-team pool will qualify for the quarter- finals, and the clubs ranked fifth to eight h in each pool will compete in the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup.

The current delayed Champions and Challenge Cups are set to resume later this month, with final venue or venues to be confirmed. Edinburgh are due to play Bordeaux-begles in France on Saturday 19 September in the second-tier competition’s last eight.