Why some Premiership clubs are angling for a format change to the Champions Cup
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THERE are clear signs that some Premiership clubs want to tinker with the format of the European Cup following reports that they are canvassing to cut the numbers in Europe’s elite club competition from 20 to 18.
However, it is far from a done deal, given that other stakeholders, including the Irish and Scottish provinces, and some English, Welsh and French clubs, want to keep the five pools of four competition as it is, rather than move to a format involving six pools of three teams, with semi-finals played over two legs.
The main drive behind the new format is that it would mean a shorter Pool stage, and therefore less congestion in the northern hemisphere’s overcrowded fixture schedule.
When asked about the reports of a structural change to the European Cup, the chairman of EPCR, Simon Halliday, told The Rugby Paper that, while he would not comment on the format discussions, he is determined to ensure that it remains the pinnacle of the professional club game.
He said: “The great thing is that everyone wants the European Champions Cup to remain the gold standard club tournament in the northern hemisphere that it has always been, and we intend to make sure it retains that status.”
Halliday added: “I visit the clubs on a regular basis, and I can tell you that if you talk to Exeter or Bristol in England, or Toulouse in France, or the Irish provinces, that what they are dedicated to doing is being successful in Europe.”
However, concerns among Premiership club owners that England’s elite domestic league is in danger of being overshadowed by the European Cup have been underlined this season by English clubs fielding half-strength teams in the competition.
This reflects a new policy of Premiership coaches saving their big stars and best starting line-ups for Premiership fixtures.
This protectionist outlook has also been encouraged by fears of an intense relegation race following the £5.36m fine and 35-point league penalty handed down to Saracens, the reigning European Cup and Premiership double champions.
Despite having been scathingly critical of French clubs resting players in Europe in previous years, Northampton, Harlequins, Sale, Bath, Gloucester, and Saracens, have been guilty of selecting squad rotation teams rather than their strongest players.
With only Exeter, and perhaps Saracens, capable of making the knock-out stage, the consequence has been another poor display by Premiership clubs in Europe’s elite tournament.
This has been accompanied by adverse comment from fans on club noticeboards, who feel cheated after paying to watch their below-strength club teams bomb in Europe.
At least Nigel Wray, the Saracens owner who has been embroiled in the salary cap fiasco, attempted to provide an explanation last weekend before this club’s return European Cup Pool double-header against Munster at Allianz Park.
Wray said the nub of the problem was that the limit of 30 games per season on player welfare grounds – which he called “absolutely right” – means that if there are the usual number of 12 England games in the calendar year, clubs get their international players for only 18 matches.
Wray commented: “If you play every single Premiership game and every single European Cup game to the final, then that’s 33 games. So, you can see from the maths, it doesn’t work. And paradoxically it penalises clubs (like Saracens), that produce England players.”
Wray said he hopes that the arrival of CVC, the private equity firm who have been investing hundreds of millions in Rugby Union over the last year, will provide a solution: “CVC’s arrival into the Premiership, into the Pro14, and probably into the Six Nations, gives us all hope that they can pull everyone together and create a better game, with better revenues, and fewer fixture conflicts.”
However, Wray’s next comment reflected the prevailing protectionist mood among Premiership owners when he said: “Why would you put on a West End show most nights without the stars! That mustn’t be Premiership Rugby.”
What the Premiership clubs have not advertised is that they agreed to the England international player release clauses in 2016, and were paid for it as the main part of the eight-year £220m Professional Game Agreement negotiated with the RFU.
Another important proviso is that seven weekends of the current season have been allocated by Premiership Rugby to the Premiership Cup, a squad competition which is in its second year of existence, and mimics the fixtures in the league.
The idea that a competition of the kudos and quality of the European Cup should be squeezed by an ‘A’ team domestic Cup competition with a limited format, status, and appeal, is hard to comprehend.
Where the European Cup is concerned the Premiership owners should bear in mind the old proverb, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ – because if they do not, they, and the game, stand to be poorer for it in every sense.
