We all suffer from that morbid curiosity of wanting to see a car crash or train wreak. Some of us may well protest that we find this all too distasteful but always turn our heads to see what is happening nonetheless. So it is with the continuing saga of the collapse of European club rugby as we know it and the creation of something new out of this carnage. Yesterday was perhaps the most pitiful sight so far when this year’s Heineken Cup was launched in Glasgow (I believe it is launched in each of the participating countries and yesterday it was Scotland).
Scotland is probably going to be the biggest looser in this creative destruction process. Their professional rugby has been struggling for sometime and probably has never really been able to properly support professional rugby in the same way as the other rugby nations of Europe. This means they are also in the weakest position when it comes to trying to get something out of the process with a very weak negotiating position. Yesterday they tried, without much luck, to try and get the negotiations going between England and France and the other European rugby nations. It looks like a forlorn hope.
I find the process wholly predictable and yet totally disheartening. The Heineken cup was formed 19 years ago out of a need for the newly professional rugby union to help generate income by encouraging competition between the top European clubs. It was established by the respective national rugby unions and to a greater extent controlled by them. It has been a huge success for the most part over this period but the underlying design problem has never been addressed – club v country. As the clubs have got richer, or at least better financed, then this underlying tension would only get worse. So now we have the best resourced leagues, England and France, wanting to take control away from the Unions and into their own hands and whilst this was always going to happen there was always going to be loosers. Unfortunately Scotland appears to the biggest losers.
So how will this all be resolved? Well as I wrote the other day…follow the money… and that leads to the break way or break up, which ever way you wish to look at it, of the current arrangements. It is very sad but always inevitable once people start to think about money as much as they think about the sport.
One final glimmer of hope for Scotland. I notice that all the PR shots of the Scottish teams from yesterday’s launched had BT Sports as their major shirt sponsors. With the Scottish vote on leaving the Union coming up next year then perhaps it might be in BT’s corporate interest to encourage the participation of Scottish teams in whatever comes next. So perhaps a British company will save Scottish rugby – now that would be interesting.
Simon Marchini
www.simonmarchini.co.uk
