French act to head off revolt over Heineken Cup

Toulon called a crisis meeting over Europe yesterday aimed at averting the planned Anglo-French breakaway to launch an alternative tournament.
The Dublin summit, held hours before the fourth all-French final in ten years, left 's clubs in danger of being left all alone without the crucial support of their French counterparts.
The talks, called at short notice just hours before the fourth all-French Heineken Cup final in ten years, are believed to have centred around an ultimatum from the French Rugby Federation demanding that their clubs scrap plans to abandon the current competition at the end of next season.
FFR president Pierre Camou summoned senior representatives of the six competing nations amid signs that the French clubs, far from quitting, are willing to get back to the negotiating table.
Camou, a retired 68-year-old banker, is understood to have backed up his call for the French clubs to get back in line by warning that they will be replaced in Europe if necessary by makeshift French teams chosen on a regional basis.
It may yet prove to be the diplomatic intervention which reunited a divided Europe.
The presidential initiative from Camou was significant enough to demand the presence of several major figures, including his English counterpart, president Bill Beaumont who famously rescued England after they had been expelled from the Five Nations in 1997 over another television rights row.
Premier Rugby Ltd, the English clubs' umbrella organisation, were represented by chairman Quentin Smith and 's Peter Wheeler, an old hand in the clubs' perennial struggle for a better deal from Europe.
Paul Goze, chairman of Ligue Nationale de Rugby, the French Top 14, was also there. This time last year the French clubs joined the English in serving two years notice of their intention to form an alternative tournament based on Premier Rugby's claim of a £152m deal with BT Vision.
Some leading French figures have voiced private concern at not being given more specific details of that contract. Six years ago after the English clubs thought they had cross-channel support for their last planned breakaway, an eleventh-hour French U-turn left them isolated.
Should history repeat itself, the Premiership clubs will be without support for their innovative plan aimed at creating a two-tier structure and a main event reducing the field from 24 to 20 based on the top six of the three European leagues plus winners or runners-up of the Heineken and Amlin Cups.
“We are going to get back into negotiation,” Goze said before the Dublin summit. “Between us, we have got to make sure that we have a clear understanding of the French position.
“But, first, we have got to get out of this confusion over television rights. All the discussions have been difficult because of this problem. I want this problem to be fixed by the end of the summer.
“The most important thing is that we need to have a real European Cup. I am not sure that four teams less is such a big deal. Five or six years ago I would have said it was not a big deal not to play in the European Cup.
“But now the competition really is part of the season. It would be very bad not to participate in the European Cup.
“The negotiations will be difficult but I am not worried about the long-term outcome. All parties will be able to agree before the deadline to ensure that after 2014 the competition will continue to be one of rugby's real forces.”

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