An emergency meeting called before the Heineken Cup final in Dublin produced a breakthrough in the bid to save the tournament, but the signing of any accord still hinges on the destination of the television contract.

The meeting on Saturday, which included the unions involved as well as the English and French clubs, saw agreement in principle that after next season the Heineken Cup should be reduced from 24 teams to 20 with the spare four taking part in an enhanced Amlin Challenge Cup. There would also be a third tournament for teams from tier-two nations such as Russia, Romania, Spain and Georgia.

The 20 teams in the Heineken Cup would be made up of the top six in that previous season's Aviva Premiership, Top 14 and RaboDirect Pro 12 with the profits shared equally by the three leagues. The other two places would not go to the holders and the winners of the Amlin Cup, but would be decided by a play-off involving the sides who finished seventh and eighth in their respective divisions.

The French Rugby Federation arranged the meeting, which did not include the tournament oragnisers, European Rugby Cup Ltd. The FFR acted as a catalyst in frustration at the lack of progress made in meetings of ERC's stakeholders at the end of last year. The last official meeting convened was back in December, and while there has been shuttle diplomacy since then, the French feared that clubs would go into next season not knowing if there were places in the Heineken Cup to play for.

The French and English clubs served notice they were pulling out last June. They said they would not sign a new accord unless there was a radical change in the way the European tournaments were organised: they wanted qualification for the Heineken Cup to become meritocratic and a shakeup in how proceeds were split.

Other innovations proposed were clubs having the greatest say on the ERC board and the tournament headquarters being moved from Dublin, but the television contract could prevent the new deal being agreed.

The response of ERC was to agree a contract extension with the tournament broadcasters, Sky. A few months later, Premiership Rugby announced a £150m deal with BT Vision that included provision for a European tournament.

Premiership Rugby's position is that if Sky remain the broadcasters, the involvement of the English clubs in the Heineken Cup after next season will end. Its contention is that the extension with Sky has no legal validity because ERC, given the notice served by clubs in England and France, did not have a tournament to sell.

"There is no Heineken Cup after next season," said an English club official. "What we are talking about is building a new tournament structured in a different way. We are not going to be forced into anything that the clubs are unhappy with and the French feel the same way. Progress was made at the meeting in Dublin but it will all come down to the television contract.

"The deal we have with BT Vision will generate so much extra revenue that even though the money would be split equally between the three leagues, the Celtic countries and Italy will receive more than they do now. They may be getting smaller slices but the cake will be far bigger."

The next step will be on 5 June when ERC has a scheduled meeting of its board of directors in Dublin. The future of the Heineken Cup will be high on the agenda.