Jeff Probyn: Clubs’ greed over World Cup is simply shameful

There is something quite sinister about the unbridled celebrations and smug reflections by some of the Aviva Premiership clubs’ owners on the resolution of next season’s European Cup.

Praised as a triumph for the Premiership that almost single handedly forced change and have brought meritocracy to European competition. Yes, it has been settled but will it really be better for all concerned as has been said?

At this moment it is three separate competitions that give everything to those that have and nothing to those that have not.

The idea that this will be a true meritocracy is just plain daft as even in the Premiership there is not a true meritocracy given that some clubs are prepared and able to lose millions to gain success, and have owners willing to bear those losses, while others have to work hard to stay within sensible budgets.

That combined with a graduated payment scale for all Premiership clubs, leaves the newly promoted and those that have been in the Premiership for just a few years with less money and therefore less able to compete, unless they have a ‘sugar daddy’.

As yet there is currently no promotional link in the new competition from either the second or third tier competitions into the first but the architects of this new competition swear it is for the good of all of the game.

The idea of running a three tier competition must be to allow movement between those tiers otherwise all that is happening is those that who organise the elite competition are simply paying lip service to the weaker sides to buy their votes.

In effect, it is like combining the Heineken Cup and the Bill Beaumont Cup (two totally unrelated tournaments) under the same competition banner allowing each to be played out independently of the other with no interaction between them.

A truly merit based European competition should have links between all tiers, so if a team wins its competition it should be given the chance to move up to the competition above.

That said, the fact that we even have a new European Cup competition is great for all concerned, particularly as it is a long term deal agreed by all stake-holders (a term I hate).

As much as the Premiership will claim credit for forcing this deal through by consistently demanding change, in all probability no deal would have been made had the RFU, and in particular chief executive Ian Ritchie, not worked tirelessly to build bridges and find compromise between all the warring parties, including Sky and BT.

You would think that the Premiership would be grateful for the help they received in finally achieving their goal of at last taking at least partial control of a competition – but no.

No sooner had the announcement been made that Europe was finally settled than the Premiership demanded the sum of £14 million from the RFU as recompense for the delay to the start of the Premiership 2015/16 season because of the World Cup.

And that’s not all; on top of that they want extra money for the release of the players who are lucky enough to be selected to take part in it.

There are many times when football is compared unfavourably to rugby but this is one area where rugby should hang its head in shame.

Representing your country in any sport is an honour that money can’t buy but in rugby our clubs put a price on it and in some cases stop players from being able to play.

Come the World Cup many of the players from the South Sea Islands will again be under pressure from their clubs not to play for their countries, it happens every time a World Cup is staged.

For many of those players it is a choice of staying with your English club and be paid or play for your island for nothing, because unlike the England players who are guaranteed at least a minimum sum far in excess of the usual match fee, many of the second tier nations can’t afford to pay even the players’ expenses.

In football the money paid to international players, although a nominal sum compared to their wages, is collectively donated to charity, but in rugby the players are paid around £15,000 for standard internationals (more for World cups) which is substantially more than their football counterparts and is in part for their image rights, so they keep it.

The FA don’t pay their clubs for the release of players for internationals but in rugby the RFU does and the current deal that they have with the clubs runs out in 2016 – a year after the World Cup.

That deal was worth £110 million over eight years which pays around £1,146,000 per club each year or approx £392,857 per player per year which should be more than enough to compensate them for releasing their players for the World Cup.

It is mind boggling that some club owners are so short sighted that they cannot see the massive financial rewards that a successful World Cup would bring to all areas of the game.

The current deal runs until 2016 so what’s the rush? Allow Lancaster and the Union to focus on delivering the best World Cup possible both on and off the pitch attracting more people to our game.

By calling on the RFU to come up with a long term agreement this close to the Cup forces the Union to focus on revenue generation rather than quality of experience, which may end up costing the clubs.

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Tagged Jeff Probyn, Rugby World Cup