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DUBLIN - A European tournament featuring clubs from all six current participating nations will go ahead next season even if top French and English sides stick to their boycott, the European Rugby Cup (ERC) said today.
"There was a commitment made for at least one tournament for the
coming season and discussions will continue regarding the format of European club rugby in the coming weeks," an ERC spokesman said.
The future of European club competition including the Heineken Cup has been surrounded by uncertainty since top French and English clubs announced they were pulling out.
If they continue their boycott the tournament could feature lower-ranking teams from those two countries since each of the six countries' rugby unions has agreed to enter teams.
The six countries are England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy.
Apart from the Heineken Cup, the ERC also organises the second-tier Challenge Cup.
The trouble started in January when the French national league (LNR) said it would pull its clubs out of Europe next season because a dispute between the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premier Rugby clubs was creating uncertainty.
That dispute centres on voting rights and shares in the ERC, with the Premier Rugby clubs wanting the RFU to give them 50 per cent of its stakes and voting rights.
The LNR confirmed at a board meeting last week that the boycott would take place and Premier Rugby has also said its clubs would join it.
The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) welcomed the ERC's confirmation that some sort of tournament would take place.
"This is a significant step forward from the gloomy picture that we faced last week with the announcement that the French and English clubs will boycott next season's Heineken Cup," Roger Lewis, WRU group chief executive and ERC board director, said in a statement.
Any tournament without the top French and English clubs would lose much of its significance since the two countries have provided nine of the 11 winners of the Heineken Cup since it began in 1995. Three of this year's semi-finalists are English clubs -- Northampton, Leicester and Wasps.
This week's strong criticism from International Rugby Board (IRB) chairman Syd Millar of the French and English clubs' decision was rejected on Wednesday by LNR president Serge Blanco.
"Mister chairman please resume your part as a judge, stop condemning and face the problems and the unspoken questions which are undermining our sport," he wrote in a letter to Millar.
The agreement to hold a tournament was reached at a meeting of the ERC board and shareholders in Dublin.
It was also attended by representatives of the six participating unions, club representatives from England and Italy, and a regional representative from Wales.
- REUTERS