Rugby: Six Nations Battle Over European Control

Officials from the Six Nations will today gather at a Heathrow hotel to be put on a war footing after the leading French and English clubs demanded a say in how the Heineken Cup is run but they will find the battleground deserted.

The meeting was hastily arranged after prompting from the International Rugby Board chairman, Syd Millar, who was concerned at the financial impact the end of the Heineken Cup would have on the Celtic nations. In a long, condemnatory statement he drew a parallel with 1998, when the English clubs pulled out of Europe, and accused them of trying to destroy European Rugby Cup Ltd.

"What next - a new Six Nations run by Premiership clubs?" he asked. Nine years ago the leading English clubs did covet international rugby which was, and is, hugely profitable. They were losing considerable sums of money, kept going only by private investors. In the 1998-99 season Bristol went into administration, Bedford struggled to pay players and both Richmond and London Scottish folded as professional sides at the campaign's end.

The picture is totally different in 2007. Most of the Premiership clubs are in profit and relegation is no longer a passport to bankruptcy. They have no designs on the international game. The clubs took the IRB to the European Court in 1998, arguing that its rules and regulations amounted to a restraint of trade.

"This is an attempt by the clubs to take control of the world game," said Fran Cotton, then a member of the Rugby Football Union, at the time. The heart of the Heineken Cup dispute is the refusal of some unions to give up their sovereignty and allow clubs jointly to run the competitions they play in.

Yet, back in 1998, the French government told the French Rugby Federation that elite clubs had to be allowed a measure of autonomy regarding the competitions they played in, such as being able to negotiate television and sponsorship rights, otherwise the FFR would be in breach of European law.

Nearly a decade on and what is the Heineken Cup row about other than a desire by French and English clubs to be allowed to take part in the tournament's television and sponsorship negotiations as shareholders and drive the tournament forward commercially? It is not about a grand design to take over the world game and there is no plan to challenge the IRB's authority by petitioning the European Court, even though some of the board's regulations, especially those regarding player release and cross-border fixtures, would probably not stand up to scrutiny.

The English system works financially. Premier Rugby and the Rugby Football Union have similar turnovers, with the latter getting an extra £7m a year when its hotel complex at Twickenham opens next year. The clubs have moved on from 1998 and any threat to the world game now will come from inertia by the unions.