Heineken Cup boycott

It's been quite a turn-up for the books. After six years of the most fêted rugby tournament in European rugby history, the French have suddenly decided that they would rather stay at home than risk getting caught up in England's power struggles.

Why the surprise at this latest development in professional rugby?

The French clubs have made a perfectly correct and sane business decision; they are making a limited resource available to the highest bidder in exchange for the French Top 14 league’s television rights. It is just a matter of time before we will have all the same problems we already see in Football where players slobber all over each other when they score and the individual player is deified to a point where all common sense is abandoned to feed the insatiable greed of a few.

You can say whatever you like about the amateur days and the comparatively lower quality of the game, but rugby was by far the better sport then because the team was everything, not the individual and most certainly not the money.

I have far greater respect for the amateur players who were leading normal lives outside of rugby but were able to become legends during their own lives for their achievements in rugby - people like Gareth Edwards, Mike Gibson, Barry John, Grant Batty, Gavin Hastings, Jacques Fouroux, Ian McGeechan, Ian Kirkpatrick, Naas Botha, and Phillippe Sella, to name but a few.

Any young talent wanting to become a professional rugby player that does not thrive and develop by training and playing seven days a week under the conditions available to him today, is obviously in the wrong profession. I therefore question the achievements of today’s player whose focus is reduced to the next rugby match, the pay-check and little else besides. Whilst in many instances rugby has become a better spectacle, the motivation of all involved is increasingly being perverted through its development as a business first and foremost and not as a sport.

Just take a close look at football, every decision by a referee is contested and argued about. If that doesn't help, the football matches are rigged by paying the refs money. This is what happened in Italy, the country of the current World Champions, resulting in the relegation of a few clubs and just recently the harshest decisions were eventually repealed and the clubs received a financial penalty. Ultimately we will have to ask ourselves if this is also desirable for rugby and whether or not, less isn't really more!

Kevin MacGowan

Why are the French so concerned about what is happening between the RFU and English Clubs? I fail to see what it has to do with them. However, as a Brive supporter, I feel Blanco certainly has a point regarding fixtures and player fatigue. Every English and French fan must be aware of the crushing player fatigue issue.
 
Also, this season, as you alluded to in your cover story, the season in France this year has been horrible for players and supporters with a disjointed fixture list and huge player injuries. This boycott could also have repercussions within the France competition in that incentives to play for Europe places next year may well affect relegation issues.
 
Blanco is also correct regarding the IRB. They are in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. We have too much international rugby. The IRB could help the player fatigue issue by reducing the numbers of autumn internationals from three to two, and also summer tours by a match. And as for the nonsense of a Ten Nation tournament every two years. That will not dilute the World Cup much will it?!

Still, I don't expect the IRB suits to listen to any reason and will carry on regardless for the sake of the bank balance now but with no eye to the future.
 
At the end of the day, what a shame. The Heineken Cup is a great tournament which has seen supporters from the participating countries having some great craic in different European cities, and on the pitch, some absolutely fantastic rugby. But, Blanco is right in terms of volume of games played.
 
Keith Charge

From a French perspective, Serge Blanco is perfectly right in boycotting the Heineken Cup! Too much is too much and enough is enough!

In this country, the European competition is not as important as the national championship. We want it to live as long as possible because it's part of our history, it's part of our culture. Nobody in this country want the shield of brennus to be exposed in some dusty museum of sport just to see more and more "new" competitions made to get more money to the IRB!

Nevertheless, the Heineken Cup is the best club competition in the world, it's got pride and passion and many French fans will not be very happy to see it die. I think this is the only way to be heard. It's time to talk about global season, global schedule and so on.

Give me a break! We don't need a southern hemisphere tour just following the Rugby World Cup in the summer of 2008! We don't need November Tests the year before the Rugby World Cup. We don't even need a seven weeks Rugby World Cup (it's possible to play it in five or six weeks). We don't need 20 tests a year just to satisfy IRB and the national unions in their need for cash.

That's what Serge Blanco wants to talk about... it's not about boycotting the Irish or bashing the Brits!

André Bonfils (Montélimar, France)

Typical French approach to an agreement. Only involved when it suits and benefits them. However at the end of the day in terms of National squads probably great for everyone except the French as their players lose out on more top level competitive games. Kick them out the Six Nations and bring in Argentina who want to play competitively.

John (Wales)

Not to mention they would rather play their full domestic prgramme at a sensible pace than squash it in to make way for a competition that brings lots of prestige, but really doesn't pay all that well.

Plenty of you have written in and had a say, and here are just a few of the mixed opinions we have received...

"Why the surprise at this latest development in professional Rugby? The French clubs have made a perfectly correct and sane business decision; they are making a limited resource available to the highest bidder in exchange for the French Top 14 league’s television rights." 

Kevin MacGowan, Germany

"I am devastated by this news. France and England must start getting their act together!

"The ultimate losers here are:

"The players…they simply want to play rugby…after all these years are you administrators and politicians still so THICK!!!!

"The fanatical supporter…just play rugby boys…leave the politics out and get on with the game…you need us just as much as we need you…it’s a 2 way street
 
"……and finally the ultimate loser…R U G B Y. If we don’t play it the sport dies a natural death.

"The people making these decisions best get with the program….whatever the reason…just play rugby. Whatever happened to this simple drive?

Seth van Niekerk, Saudi Arabia

"It's about time someone got out a very large broom and cleaned out the corridors of the RFU.

"Typical of them to go back on their agreement with the UK clubs. 

"Greed again has and probably will again scupper a fantastic championship.

"The RFU seem to be hell bent on destroying what the clubs have been working towards for the last 10 years.

John Kennedy, Leicestershire

"Should it really bother Blanco and the French that the English RFU keep the monies from the Heineken Cup and not pass it on to their clubs? Does this harm French rugby? No it does not.

"Blanco just wants the French clubs to have a bigger say and more money. Typical pig.

"There is a solution to the French, why don't they half the games in their league. They don't have to play home and away, instead they could play each team once.

"As for the other home nations, they should just say au revoir France and give them the two fingers by refusing to play France in the Six Nations and play Argentina instead.

"They could also make a joint decision and refuse to play in the World Cup therefore making the World Cup a farce.

"This would financially break the French Rugby Union and clubs, then we would see a quick change from the French.

"The majority of the supporters that will attend the World Cup from abroad will be from England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland and in that  order.

"Just imagine if these supporters returned their tickets (empty stadiums at the World Cup) and cancelled all accomodation bookings. This would cause untold damage to France, their image and their pockets.

"Would the Southern Hemisphere teams want to compete in a meaningless competition especially if the World Cup winners were not in it?"

Dermot Owens, UK

"Promote the Challenge Cup teams for next season and when Blanco comes back in 2008/09 looking to get his teams back in to the Heineken Cup the French clubs should be sanctioned in some financial way for trying to ruin the competition. 

"Let them have three teams in it the first year back, four the next etc.  French tourism will also suffer as thousands of rugby supporters travel to France every year to watch Heineken Cup games.

Ronan, Dublin

"I think no one should care if the French clubs leave the Heineken cup. Their fans don't travel anyway and most of the teams put in half-hearted efforts, an even when they do well it's usually a boring spectacle (Toulouse - Stade final 2 years ago was a snore-fest).

"Just have a competition with 16 teams - 3 Irish, 3 Welsh, 2 Scottish, 2 Italian, 6 English. Four groups of four, top 2 in each go through. Less European games will mean better Magners league and Guinness Prem.
 
"Also if the clubs really don't want their precious Top 14 to be interupted, kick France out of the 6N, then they can play nothing but Top 14 (I realise this also affects the less troublesome FFR, but so what).

"A shorter Five Nations again means better Magners league and Guinness prem. Alternatively, see if Argentina are willing to set up a base in Europe and they can replace France and get a richly deserved place in an international competition.
 
"A couple of years in complete international wilderness and the French clubs will come begging through a newly empowered FFR."
 
Dec, Ireland.