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EPCR confirm talks have taken place regarding new global club tournament
By Ciarán Kennedy
EPCR have confirmed that talks have already taken place regarding the creation of a new global club tournament.
The idea of a new global club tournament has frequently been mooted recently, with French Rugby President Bernard Laporte, who is hoping to be elected World Rugby vice-chairman next month, telling Midi Olympique that he is keen to introduce a Club World Cup.
Earlier on Monday, Laporte suggested that the Club World Cup would be a 20-team competition which includes teams from the English Premiership, French Top14, Pro14 and Super Rugby, along with the league winners from the United States and Japan, with the tournament taking place every year, bar World Cup years.
Laporte said the Club World Cup would replace the Champions Cup, stating that "it doesn’t generate enough income."
Yet EPCR have responded to those comments, outlining that while discussions have taken place between EPCR and shareholders, they envisage that any global club tournament would complement the current European competitions.
They also confirmed that their discussions have centered around a global tournament which would take place once every four years, rather than the annual tournament suggested by Laporte.
"EPCR has noted today’s media reports regarding a proposal for an annual Club World Cup," an EPCR statement read.
"Discussions have already taken place on an official level between EPCR and its shareholders regarding a global club tournament which could complement the Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup and which could take place once every four years. Work on possible formats is ongoing with a collaborative approach and issues of player welfare to the fore.
"EPCR does not believe it appropriate to highlight such discussions while the public health crisis due to COVID-19 continues, and currently, the organisation’s focus is on attempting to reschedule the knockout stages of the 2019/20 tournaments subject to government and local authority directives."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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