At least agreement is that pro 12 will not receive less than for h cup

Whats really disappointing about the figure is that it is only 40% of their previous sponsorship and with the agreement ended this year one would have expected an increase in any deal that would have been agreed this year.

Same sponser, for less money, launch was so bad they had to bring erc back, the future looks bleak at the moment.

www.espn.co.uk/european-rugby-champions-...by/story/234317.html

A new competition run by the same people and with the same sponsors it appears!

BOD signs on with BT Sport for EPRC.

60 Per Cent Increase In Funds For French Rugby

www.runningrugby.com/accounts-funding-an...ds-for-french-rugby/

9 July 2014 by Editor


The Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) in France has a funding pool of €115.5m to distribute to clubs for the upcoming 2014/15 season, an increase of around 60 per cent on the figure for the previous year.

With a new bumper television deal with broadcaster Canal+ in place, worth a reported €355m over five years, the LNR are now able to reap the financial rewards with the rules on distribution of the money based on four new principles, as revealed at last weekend’s General Assembly. The €115.5m figure dwarfs last season’s budget of €72m.

A fixed share of the money from the TV deal will be distributed between the two top divisions in France, with 60 per cent going to the Top 14 and 40 per cent to the Pro D2. Specific bonuses will be awarded to promoted and relegated clubs, with €500,000 going to clubs promoted to and relegated from the Top 14 (Lyon and La Rochelle promoted, Perpignan and Biarritz relegated) and €300,000 going to clubs promoted into the Pro D2 (Massy and Montauban).

€10m will be put aside to support training, with €5m going into the funding of training centres across France and €5m being put towards the development of young French players. Part of the TV money to be paid to clubs will be geared towards the modernisation of stadiums, with clubs only able to access the funds should they comply with the LNR Stadiums Label.

Furthermore, a total of almost €19m will be distributed according to club rankings over the course of the season and results going back over the last 5 seasons. And the compensation to clubs over players being picked to represent France has been adjusted to €1,300 per player for every day they are away with the national side.

By contrast, the current deal between Premiership Rugby and BT Sport is worth £152m over four years.

Value Of Club TV Rights Double In FranceFrance
www.runningrugby.com/media/value-of-club...ts-double-in-france/

Fourdogs wrote:
What is most surprising is that everyone is still being surprised by the amateurism of it all.

Easy to destroy, difficult to create?

pinky wrote:

_nobody_ wrote: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/eur...y-Champions-Cup.html

The circus goes on. After a farcical draw, that by all accounts was very amateurish, it turns out they have to hire all the ERC staff to run the shop!

It's not even just that they're hiring all the staff. It sounds like the whole operation will be run by the ERC from Dublin for this season.
It seemed like ERC were running everything in the interim alright, but I assumed they were aiming to have the new organisation ready for the start of the season.
All a bit daft really. There was no reason they couldn't have implemented all the changes to the tournament and management structure while maintaining the ERC and moving it to Switzerland in phases.

Hopefully this means they will start communicating again and we might get some idea when the fixtures will be confirmed, etc.

What is most surprising is that everyone is still being surprised by the amateurism of it all.

_nobody_ wrote: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/eur...y-Champions-Cup.html

The circus goes on. After a farcical draw, that by all accounts was very amateurish, it turns out they have to hire all the ERC staff to run the shop!

It's not even just that they're hiring all the staff. It sounds like the whole operation will be run by the ERC from Dublin for this season.
It seemed like ERC were running everything in the interim alright, but I assumed they were aiming to have the new organisation ready for the start of the season.
All a bit daft really. There was no reason they couldn't have implemented all the changes to the tournament and management structure while maintaining the ERC and moving it to Switzerland in phases.

Hopefully this means they will start communicating again and we might get some idea when the fixtures will be confirmed, etc.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/eur...y-Champions-Cup.html

The circus goes on. After a farcical draw, that by all accounts was very amateurish, it turns out they have to hire all the ERC staff to run the shop!

EPRC have sold the worldwide (outside France UK and Ireland) rights to both competitions to IMG Media for "significantly more than £14 stg"on a 4 year deal. The TV rights for France are up for grabs with a reserve price of €27 million. Although the terms of the BT and Sky deals and names of sponsors haven't been announced this will represent the largest year on year increase in funding. Hopefully this will translate in increased funding for us from IRFU or will we be "penalised" for not being in the premium competition?

Eh does anyone remember "meritocracy"....

...well have a read of this: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/clu...uld-be-scrapped.html

No one with more cred than Ian McGeechan, the new face of PRL? Lets get Leeds and Bristol in and close it off!

Having seen off the ERC, now its time to sort out the RFU - watch this one run!

Bit of a PRL love-in as expected. I love the way they harp on about the "compromise" of having seven teams from the Pro12.

From rugbydump.com

The future of European rugby is now clear after months of speculation ended recently with an agreement between the relevant parties, resulting in the new European Rugby Champions Cup. Here is a breakdown of how things will work from next season.

For some time now the English and French clubs had expressed their unhappiness with the format of the Heineken Cup, culminating in talks of them intending to dispand and set up their own tournament in September of last year.

After months of talks, we're at the point where everyone is on the same page, and the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup (second tier) were signed on.

The two major players in the TV rights, BT Sport and Sky Sports have agreed to share coverage.

The tournament, run by the newly formed European Professional Club Rugby, will feature 20 teams.

European Rugby Champions Cup qualification:
20 clubs qualifying through the finishing positions in their leagues from the preceding season:

- top 6 from TOP 14
- top 6 from Premiership Rugby
- top 7 from PRO 12, with at least one club from each country participating in the league
- the 20th place will be taken by the winner of a play off (first season different to following)

The format and finer points of the tournament/s are a bit more complicated, but that's the basic premise and this new video from BT Sport explains things quite clearly. As we get nearer the time, we will go through other facets of it, but for now it looks like it's a positive step in the right direction.

What do you think of the new qualification setup?

pinky wrote: Being mischievous here, but given that the Pro12 teams are guaranteed the first €20m, doesn't that mean we have nothing to lose if the Minister ringfences the tournament for terrestrial broadcast?

No. The new ERPC negotiates deals on behalf of the three leagues. The €20m is guaranteed on the TV deals, which is the main source of revenue in every sport around the world. Our TV deal comes under the same umbrella as England, Wales and Scotland.

Being mischievous here, but given that the Pro12 teams are guaranteed the first €20m, doesn't that mean we have nothing to lose if the Minister ringfences the tournament for terrestrial broadcast?

Politics pure and simple. As a home union and founding member of 6ns( back when it was 4ns) they are well established on the 6ns comitee which founded erc and will govern this new tournament. They get 5.1m from the first 20m guaranteed but the next 4m is divided between us and welsh AFAIK. They expect the pro12 take to be 24m initially.

Incidently the 5m that sky are paying next year is being divided as follows. 2m for irfu, 2m for RRW and 1m SRU. The Italiansgget nothing but are free to do their own deal. We can sell the rest of our games to tg4/ Setanta etc and keep the money. RTE being the organisation it is sulked when sky deal was announced and won't bid thus driving our earning potential down.

IMO sky missed a big opportunity here. They had the chance to basically own the pro12 lock stock and barrel and the 4 unions + RRW but didn't see what was coming down road or at least underestimated it. IMO circa 50m over 3 yes would have done it which is peanuts to them. 12m for teams, 3m prize money and 1.5m admin and ref admin . What a comp it could have been then.