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PARIS - English rugby is to blame for French clubs boycotting next season's European Cup, according to France's National Rugby League (LNR) president Serge Blanco.
This week, Blanco decided to pull France's top clubs out of the continent's top club competition to protect his country's domestic game.
But speaking in French sports newspaper l'Equipe, Blanco insisted fixture congestion was not the deciding factor, as many had believed.
"No, above all it's the fault of the English Rugby federation (RFU)," said Blanco when asked if a heavy schedule was to blame.
At present the European Cup is run by the national federations of the participating European rugby nations.
But top clubs, who run their own domestic leagues such as the French Top 14 and the English Premiership, want more of a say in the running of the competition.
Over the last few months they had been trying to renegotiate the Paris Accord -- statutes and regulations that govern the European Cup.
However, according to Blanco, the English RFU refused to hand over any share of it's control to English clubs.
"If the RFU, which to begin with had agreed, like the FFR (French Rugby Federation), to give up 50 per cent of it's part (of control) to its clubs, we would have committed regardless of the difficulties it would have presented to our calendar," added Blanco.
"But their refusal threw everything up in the air."
The problem is more wide-ranging than simply a dispute between clubs and their federations, though, with fixture congestion and television revenues major issues.
But perhaps most important is the club versus country dispute.
Already clubs lose their top players several times a year to the national set-ups for international matches.
Blanco believes that, much like football in Europe, it is the domestic leagues which are paramount to the growth and success of the sport on a global scale.
And he is wary of the International Rugby Board's (IRB) reported plans to introduce a World Cup every two years, rather than four.
"They (the IRB) are going to dry up the source. Rugby cannot continue to survive if the economic forces representing English and French clubs is diminished," he said.
"Sometimes we complain about the number of foreign players (in our leagues) but it is our championships that allow the teams such as Argentina and Italy to have competitive players and for Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Romania to even exist.
"I don't think rugby can develop if it adopts a comparable model to volleyball with multiple international tournaments."
It is not yet clear what impact France's boycott of next year's competition will have.
English clubs boycotted the tournament in 1998-99 but returned a year later, although they too have threatened to boycott next season's competition.
September and October's World Cup also has a large part to play in the French clubs' decision as it impinges on the domestic calendar, meaning the season must either be delayed, creating later fixture congestion, or it must start during the World Cup.
That would deprive teams of their best players, something Blanco believes will seriously damage the Top 14 competition.
Although the boycott will hit French clubs financially -- France Television pays 12.5 million euros a year for the television rights for the European Cup -- Blanco is sure it is the right move for his clubs.
"I am convinced that if we didn't do this, our system would become more difficult to defend and we would be dead after 2009," he said.
Most teams have rallied behind the LNR president but not everyone is convinced by Blanco's stance.
"Serge Blanco's decision was made to provoke a reaction," said Narbonne general manager Samuel Gauthier.
"Announcing that we will not play in the European Cup next season is a form of negotiation."
The LNR's decision has angered many people, with some afraid it will hurt the competition.
"As soon as everybody was on board, the tournament snowballed into the massive competition it is now," said Northampton head coach Paul Grayson.
"It is the biggest competition there is and to have one nation withdraw would completely devalue it."
FFR boss Bernard Lapasset is also against a boycott.
"I understand the reasons, even if I don't agree with the method," he said.
Meanwhile, the ERC released a statement saying that the Paris Accord, which runs out at the end of the season, is still under review and a meeting will be held in early February to discuss further changes.
- AFP
