NEW CUP PACT IN EUROPE
Scots given just one place
ONLY one of Scotland’s professional clubs will be guaranteed entry into Europe’s premier club competition under a new deal announced last night. A 20- team European Rugby Champions Cup will be staged from next season to replace the 24-team Heineken Cup, which has been run by the unions since 1995. Two back-up competitions will also be staged.
As part of the deal, only one club from each of the Pro12 nations will be assured of a place in the tournament, although nominally it will be the top seven sides from the league.
As the current table stands, Glasgow Warriors will be in the competition next season as, al t hough Edinburgh are in seventh, the lack of Italian sides in the qualifying spots mean one of them would be promoted and the Scots would miss out.
The eight- year deal ends a lengthy period of acrimony and bitterness. English and French club officials triggered the row two years ago when they gave notice of terminating their membership of ERC. They claimed the competition had f ai l ed t o generate t he commercial revenue expected.
This prompted a series of claims and counter-claims, including the threat by the English Premier clubs to create an Anglo-Welsh League if a new European competition was not created.
That danger has now abated and the news that compromise had been reached was followed by confirmation that the competitions will be screened by both Sky Sports and BT Sport. It is planned that there will not be one overall sponsor but a group of backers, as in football’s Champions League.
Club officials estimate the competition could be worth £100million within five years, rather than the current £44m a year.
Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Premier Rugby — whose militant clubs have forced the winding up of European Rugby Cup (ERC), the Dublin-based company dominated by the unions — said: ‘This is an historic day for European club rugby. The parties have worked hard to get to this point and the uncertainty is now over.’
Now a new four-man executive, made up of representatives from the English Premiership, French Top 14 and Pro12, will be guided by an i ndependent chairman. Instead of Dublin and a 14-man board, the new competition will be based in Lucerne, Switzerland.
A new, third- tier qualifying competition will be staged to include teams from countries like Spain, Georgia, and Romania.
EDINBuRGH’S game with Cardiff tonight takes on new meaning with the news of last night’s deal.
Alan Solomons’ side take on the Welsh at Meggetland seven points behind sixth-place Scarlets but with a game in hand.
It’s a tall order to overturn the deficit but back-row star David Denton believes the move from Murrayfield can aid their cause.
‘Everybody is buying into playing at Meggetland and the fans have been looking for somewhere like this for a while,’ said Denton. ‘It is nice to test it out this season a few times and see how it goes. Edinburgh: Cuthbert; HidalgoClyne, Scott, Strauss, Brown; Leonard, Hart; Dickinson, Ford, Nel, Gilchrist, van der Westhuizen, Coman, Du Preez, Denton.