Out-Law News 3 min. read
25 Sep 2012, 3:43 pm
Jean-Pierre Lux of European Rugby Cup (ERC) said that English clubs may be excluded from participating in any reformed pan-European club rugby competitions as a result of the ongoing dispute over broadcasting rights.
Earlier this month Premier Rugby (PR), the organisation representing the top English rugby union league, announced that it had secured a £152 million deal that would allow BT to broadcast matches from England's top domestic club league, the Aviva Premiership, from next season. The deal also provides BT with "exclusive live broadcast rights" to show Aviva Premiership clubs participating in European competitions from season 2014-15 for three years.
However, ERC announced that it had agreed a separate deal with Sky that it said gives the broadcaster the exclusive right to show live Heineken Cup matches, as well as games from sister competition the Amlin Challenge Cup, between 2014 and 2018. The Heineken Cup is the premier pan-European club competition currently.
ERC has questioned the legitimacy of PR's deal with BT, claiming that English clubs, together with those in France, Italy, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, had agreed that ERC would sell broadcast rights on their behalf. ERC has claimed that the BT deal may be in breach of international rugby regulations, but PR has insisted that ERC only has the right to negotiate broadcast deals on behalf of the six nations' rugby unions until 2014.
The ERC has been involved in negotiations over the future format of the Heineken Cup following concerns raised about the qualification process by English clubs. Lux has now suggested that English clubs could be absent from any reformed Heineken Cup competition from 2014.
"This is shocking because it is illegal," Lux said, according to a report by the Guardian newspaper. "The English [representatives at the ERC] did not say anything about how the money from the deal will be shared between the domestic and European competitions and how it will be shared with the other countries' [competing clubs]."
"They opened talks directly with some South African and French clubs. This has hampered the negotiations. It is hard to talk with them. We may have to move on without the English, though I do not want it."
Currently, the Heineken Cup is contested by 24 teams each season. Six clubs from both England and France qualify for the tournament based on their performances in their respective domestic competitions. The Aviva Premiership is contested by 12 clubs, whilst France's top domestic league contains 14 teams.
Three clubs each from Wales and Ireland also qualify on the basis of their performance in the RaboDirectPRO12 league. That competition is contested by only four clubs from each of those nations. The other teams that make up the league are from Italy and Scotland, with the two clubs from each nation selected to participate in the Heineken Cup by their national sports governing bodies. The winners of the previous season's Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup also qualify automatically.
According to a report by the Scotsman, English and French clubs have been lobbying for a change to the qualification rules for the Heineken Cup in a bid to reduce the number of participating clubs. Those clubs are seeking to reduce from 10 to six the number of clubs that currently automatically qualify from the RaboDirectPRO12 league.
"Is it really appropriate always to have two Italian clubs in the group stage? Is it normal that some teams automatically qualify while others have to fight for their place? I am not sure,” Jean-Marc Lhermet, general manager of French rugby club AS Clermont said, according to the Scotsman's report.
PR said that it has not held "formal discussions" with South African clubs over potential participation in a new rival competition to the Heineken Cup. It said that it had put its "proposals to ERC" and was looking forward to the body's response, according to the Guardian's report.
"We withdrew from the accord in June and ERC has accepted that it cannot include the rights of the English clubs in any other rights deal it does," a spokesperson for PR said, according to the report.
Sports law specialist James Earl of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, previously said that ERC appeared to be "fatally wounded" by the BT broadcasting deal announcement. He said the deal was likely to spawn a new model for the negotiation and distribution of commercial rights associated with participation in European club rugby competitions, but warned that further decentralisation of rights negotiations could impact on sporting competitiveness.
"PR must have a plan to ensure that they can deliver European competition as part of the broadcast deal agreed with BT," Earl said. "It may be that France follows suit by arranging their own territory-specific broadcasting deal, as their clubs have expressed similar concerns to those in England over the existing structure and format of the Heineken Cup."
"However, decentralised commercial deals can become very complicated and may also impact on the relative wealth and power of competing clubs," Earl said. "For example, in Spain football clubs negotiate their own TV deals, but this has created a situation where there is huge disparity between the bigger, wealthier clubs and smaller clubs.
"European competitions could become almost token in nature if they are weighted in favour of the bigger leagues. Commercially it maybe more successful, but the essence of sport and cross-border competition may be lost if there is not a truly pan-European make up to the completion," Earl said.