Millionaire owner of Bath RFC, Bruce Craig, has expressed his dismay at the recent announcement by the Scottish, Welsh, Irish, French and Italian unions saying that they stood “side by side” in their belief that the unions, rather than clubs, must be “at the heart of the governance of cross-border club competitions”.

In an exclusive interview with The Waisale Times, Craig admitted that the vision both he and Premier Rugby Ltd. CEO Mark McCafferty shared for The Rugby Champions Cup now lies in tatters but that neither he nor McCafferty will be relenting with their campaign for a Club owner-led competition any time soon.

“It’s a massive blow for clubs across all the home unions. The opportunity cost of this statement alone is devastating but we will continue to fight for the benefits to the English clubs.”

“It’s imperative that the Unions appreciate the stance of the simple Club owner like myself. We are fighting for the competition because the potential of the Rugby Champions Cup is simply phenomenal. I’m not convinced the Unions understand our perspective. We have a really golden opportunity on our hands here.

“Look at the English Premier League in football for example, the most profitable league in world football. According to Deloitte they’ve just increased overall turnover to almost $3.5 billion. Billion!!! Do you think the FA interfere in how they run their business? Of course not, it wouldn’t make sense. Their sole focus is on making their national team the best they can, not on telling clubs how to run their business, and that’s obviously working out pretty, kind of, reasonably ok for them. The bottom line is the clubs are the ones with the vested interest in making the league as successful and profitable as possible and that needs to be respected.”

“Alternatively we could even consider a franchise-based approach, similar to that of the NFL, which is the most profitable sports league in the world. Personally this is the model I would favour. The average NFL club is currently worth just under $1.2 billion. Billion!!! Look at the Cleveland Browns for example, a pretty rubbish team for the last decade, in a midsized market, and they just sold for almost $1 billion last year. $1 Billion!!! Can you imagine?

“But the thing about the NFL is that they know how to give the fans what they want, which is something that I’d envisage The Rugby Champions Cup will also be able to deliver.”

“We could play overseas games, for example, similar to how the NFL do it. Except we could go and play in wealthier countries than Britain, such as the States themselves or even places like the United Arab Emirates or Qatar. The infrastructure they are building over there is exceptional and it would be great to promote the game to a wider audience.”

“I also think there are other opportunities for the fans out there. We could extend [the duration of] Head-Bin up to 10 or even 20 minutes. That would mean players would have a much better chance of recovering from concussions there and then and getting back out on the pitch. That would give fans more of a chance to see the top players that they’ve paid good money to see. This would obviously then have the knock-on effect of benefiting player’s welfare. The higher calibre player you can put on the field the more you can charge on the door and therefore the more money the players would get paid. It’s win win.”

When asked to expound on his notions of a franchise-based league, Craig was enthusiastic about the potential such a model could offer.

“Ultimately it would be beneficial if the tournament moves towards a franchise model as that would give the players, the fans and the clubs in the Rugby Champions Cup the stability that all the owners crave whilst completely mitigating the financial risk of relegation. This will allow the franchises to invest more heavily in the teams and to attract the top talent from all around the world rather than simply having to rely on local players. This would be great for Italian and Scottish rugby as their best players would get drafted into one of the top English or French teams and get to play at the highest level. Or even into one of the Welsh or Irish sides.”

Meanwhile McCafferty, in a unique approach to dealing with such a hammer blow to his plans, has rubbished any media reports surrounding the statement.

“I don’t accept the media reports claiming that there was a statement by the five Unions and until someone can prove otherwise we will carry on regardless.”

When this reporter offered to show him the statement there and then on his phone McCafferty declined the offer. “You can’t trust everything you read in the papers, or on the internet, or even see on the news, or hear on the radio. The media, present company excluded of course, always have a vested interest and this statement, supposed statement, is clearly just a media angle to sell more papers and advertising space. Nothing more.”

“We don’t see any evidence of their [the clubs under the governance of the five non-English Unions] support wavering. We were working with them on Wednesday on the implementation of the Champions Cup, and nothing has changed since then, except for the statement, which of course is a fabrication” McCafferty said.

“They certainly say that they’ve never received a financial offer from the French union and we’ve taken that on trust. What reason would they have to lie?”

“They’ve made it very clear over the last 18 months they won’t be involved in any competitions in which the English clubs are not playing and I’m very confident this still holds true. 100%. Really sure. Definitely.”

“I’m also confident that the Welsh regions remain in support of the Rugby Champions Cup, even if their Union has dictated otherwise, which they haven’t. We in the PRL enjoy a very healthy relationship with the Welsh clubs and their owners. The Welsh are great lads.”

The statement the Unions of France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy are alleged to have made reads as follows:

“A European club competition is to take place during the 2014/2015 season following an optimised sporting and economic format with 20 teams, no matter how many countries are involved.

“The competition will be driven by the existing organisation (currently named ERC) which will remain in charge of the centralised sale and management of all commercial rights, amongst other things.

“Discussions over governance will be pursued in order to optimise the internal functioning of the existing organisation (currently named ERC).

“The common aim is to move eventually towards the integration of European competitions within an all-encompassing European rugby framework.”

*Please note, this article is clearly a fictional parody based on a true story. Any resemblance to anyone called Craig or Bruce is purely coincidental. Season’s greetings one and all.