Almost There ?

The meeting today of ERC Shareholders and other intersted parties such as PRL and LNR, while not agreeing anything conclusive, look to be moving towards a settlement, with it now down, it appears, to the RFU and PRL to solve their differences so that European competition can continue.

An ERC Shareholders meeting took place in Dublin today (Tuesday, 8 May) with IRB Chairman Dr. Syd Millar, which included representatives from the six Shareholder Unions and representatives from the Club bodies from England (PRL), France (LNR), Italy (LIRE) and Wales (Welsh Regions).

All parties reaffirmed their commitment to the long term future of the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup and to providing a stable future for both ERC tournaments.

The parties reached a conditional agreement, which, on completion of discussions between RFU and PRL over the next two weeks, will ensure the long term future of both European tournaments and the participation of the leading teams from all six competing nations. All parties are working towards a final agreement by the weekend of the Heineken Cup Final at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday, 20 May.

It was confirmed that the participant teams will be Club / Provincial / Regional teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and in the case of England, France and Italy, Club teams from the top professional leagues in each country.  

In attendance at today’s meeting were: IRB (Dr. Syd Millar & Mike Miller); ERC (Jean-Pierre Lux & Derek McGrath); FFR (Pierre Camou, Bernard Lapasset & Michel Palmie); LNR (Serge Blanco); FIR (Orazio Arancio); LIRE (Sandro Manzoni); IRFU (Peter Boyle & Philip Browne); RFU (Terry Burwell & Martyn Thomas); PRL (Mark McCafferty & Tom Walkinshaw); SRU (George Jack & Allan Munro); WRU (Roger Lewis); Welsh Regions (Stuart Gallacher)