Irb Looks To Broker European Cup Agreement

Following a meeting with all of the six major European national unions, the
International Rugby Board has backed moves to ensure the future of the European
Rugby Cup by establishing a new five-year participation agreement.

This agreement will see the six unions as shareholders and will be based on
club participation in France, England and Italy and provincial and regional
participation in Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Each national union will have the right to invite teams from within its
territory to participate in the ERC according to its own participation criteria.

It will be up to each union to decide how it wishes to structure its
shareholding and financial arrangements with its participating teams.

The intervention of the IRB could help break the deadlock between the RFU and
the English and French clubs on voting rights over the governance of the
European Cup.

The meeting also saw agreement that no other new tournaments will be
sanctioned by the six national unions and the IRB.

The RFU and FFR will invite the Chairman of the IRB to meet with the English
and French club representative bodies, Premier Rugby Limited (PRL) and LNR
respectively, in the next few days.