The Heineken Cup – Recent Past & Future

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Heineken-Cup

We got a piece on the future of the Heineken Cup dropped on our Facebook site from one of our readers Raymond Acheson.

We haven’t said to much on this as we tend to ignore things that aren’t going to happen 🙂 but it’s probably time we clarify the Front Row Union’s opinion on the ongoing shenanigans in European Rugby:

Irrespective of whatever format European Rugby takes it should never fall into the hands of self interested clubs who choose to drain the life blood out of the games continued development for their own self interests.

Thanks to Raymond for dropping us the piece and we welcome any of our readers to contribute to the site. Have a read and let Raymond know what you think.

The Heineken Cup – Recent Past & Future

The season 1997–98 saw the introduction of a home and away format in the pool games. The five pools of four teams, which guaranteed each team a minimum of six games, and the three quarter-final play-off matches all added up to a 70-match tournament. Brive reached the final again but were beaten late in the game by Bath with a penalty kick. Ironically, English clubs had decided to withdraw from the competition in a dispute over the way it was run.

1998 – 1999: English Clubs threatened to leave and their bluff was called

Without English clubs, the 1998–99 tournament revolved around France, Italy and the Celtic nations. Sixteen teams took part in four pools of four. French clubs filled the top positions in three of the groups and for the fourth consecutive year a French club, in the shape of Colomiers from the Toulouse suburbs, reached the final. Despite this it was to be Ulster’s year as they beat Toulouse (twice) and reigning French champions Stade Français on their way to the final at Lansdowne Road, Dublin. Ulster then carried home the trophy after a 21–6 win over Colomiers in front of a capacity 49,000 crowd.

2007 – 2008: English & French teams threatened to leave but didn’t

During competition there was uncertainty over the future of the tournament after the 2006–07 season as French clubs had announced that they would not take part because of fixture congestion following the Rugby World Cup and an ongoing dispute between English clubs and the RFU.

It was speculated that league two teams might compete the next season, the RFU saying “If this situation is not resolved, the RFU owes it to the sport to keep this competition going…We have spoken to our FDR clubs, and if they want to compete we will support them.” A subsequent meeting led to the announcement that the tournament would be played in 2007–08, with clubs from all the six nations.

2014 – 2015: English & French teams threaten to leave again – yawnnnnnn

On 20 May 2013 it was announced that both French and English top-tier teams would not be competing.

Again we see that the English & French clubs want to take their ball away and play with themselves unless we give them more TV rights and more teams.

That works on the basis that they have the better teams.

Let’s look at the last number of years results to determine the facts.

2006 Muster beat Biarritz
2007 Wasps beat Leicester
2008 Muster beat Toulouse
2009 Leinster beat Munster
2010 Toulouse beat Biarritz
2011 Leinster beat Northampton
2012 Leinster beat Ulster

I think we should try and get the French teams back on board again which will not be that difficult and then let the English Clubs have a break so that they can play with themselves for the next three seasons or whatever time period the IRB agrees is appropriate.

Perhaps a number of the Super 15 rugby teams could be asked to join or a few Argentinian teams who are now benefiting from the Championship with New Zealand, Australia & South Africa.

Your views?


2 responses to “The Heineken Cup – Recent Past & Future”

  1. I have been following this storm in a teacup for a while now, and through the various pundits, opinions and information out there, all I have been getting out of it is a bottom line of money.

    Whilst I appreciate that bringing money into the game is idealistically a good thing, it can also be a catalyst towards creating a system where the only teams who can compete are those that can afford to sign the best players.

    I hope the rugby world take this into consideration and do not let rugby go the way of “the working man’s game”, where money, IMO, has ruined football to such an extent that greed and corruption are omnipresent.

    Such a scenario will not benefit the fans, and ultimately, it is the fans who are the ones who keep these teams going. Take away the fans, you take away the teams, and whilst the money men sit in their ivory towers, they will not give two hoots, as long as they get their slice of the financial pie.

  2. I do think that the French will return to the European fold but the English Premiership will probably miss out a year or two. However I don’t think any Southern Hemisphere teams will take up the slack but we’ll see more Italian sides, the likes of Bucharest Wolves and some English Championship sides joining in.

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