WELSH REGIONS PREPARE TO UNITE AND FIGHT

Protect Our Game is the slogan being used by Wales's four regions to promote the festive period derbies that are threatening to attract sell-out crowds. Protect and protest will be the theme of their supporters' groups as the professional game in Wales heads towards an uncivil war in the new year.

The regions have until 31 December to commit themselves to the continuation of the participation agreement with the Welsh Rugby Union until 2018. It reaches a break point at the end of the season and there will be no increase in the £6.2m the governing body pays to the four for, among other things, having a minimum number of Wales-qualified players in their squad and for player release to the national set-up.

The regions currently receive £2.9m a year from the tournaments they play in: the RaboDirect Pro12, the Heineken Cup and the LV Cup. That figure is in danger of dropping next season – and not only because of the uncertainty of what form a European club competition will take.

The Rugby Football Union's chief executive Ian Ritchie's attempt to salvage a six-nation tournament from the wreckage of 18 months of failed negotiations will reach its probable denouement in Dublin on Friday when the unions involved, including England, will look at the issues of governance and the negotiation of commercial contracts. The clubs from France and England have been invited, along with the Welsh regions, but the latter two believe an Anglo-Welsh league next season is a more tempting option and will not be there.

The Heineken Cup proposed for next season by the five unions who met in Dublin last month would mean 20 teams, all 12 from the Rabo, six from France and two others from developing unions, taking part, with the financial value of the tournament estimated to be €40 million, half of which would go to the French. The regions, depending on the final figure, could suffer a slight drop in income from the competition.

As they could by remaining in the Pro12, which as well as needing a new title sponsor may be reduced to 10 in number, with the Italian Rugby Federation debating whether to keep its two professional teams, Treviso and Zebre, in the tournament. Its participation agreement with the three Celtic unions runs out at the end of the season and there is deadlock over its renewal.

In the four seasons the federation has been in what was the Celtic league, it has paid €3m a year for the privilege. The sum is divided 10 ways: the Welsh regions receive €1.2m, as do the Irish provinces, and the two Scottish teams share €600,000. The Italians want to be treated as equals, no longer paying in but taking out a share with the other three unions, but the new television deal with Sky is only worth £5.5m a year: BBC Wales is paying £3.2m for the secondary rights and the Irish and Scottish packages are worth little more than £300,000 combined.

If the federation has its way, there will be less money for the Celts. The Welsh regions would face a cut in income on two fronts or if the Italians left the Pro12, which is a possibility, they would have two fewer home fixtures in their season. The legal advice they have received is that to roll the participation agreement on would be a financially reckless decision, even though they have been told by the WRU that if it remains unsigned at the beginning of the new year, it will look for alternatives, one of which would appear to be putting franchises for new teams out to tender.

There is no meeting planned between the WRU and the regions between now and 31 December and no hint that the deadline will be extended. The four have had regular talks with Premiership Rugby about a 16-team Anglo-Welsh league, going so far as to consider whether reverting to their clubs names, Llanelli for the Scarlets, Swansea rather than Ospreys, Cardiff dropping the Blues and Newport losing the Gwent Dragons, although there would be legal issues to address and clubs with those names exist in the Welsh Premiership, a competition of potential that generates little in the way of publicity.

The regions are prepared to go to court to fight for the right to try to increase their revenue by arranging their own fixtures. They have also been looking at whether they have a case for arguing that the WRU has been abusing a dominant position and while on the surface it is a Welsh dispute, it has the potential to have an impact on the game throughout Europe, not least if an Anglo-Welsh league starts next season and takes up 30 weekends.

In Wales it has turned into a battle for publicity, an area in which the regions have been playing catch-up. Last week's meeting between the two sides was a reinforcement of positions rather than a discussion. The regions have more to lose but their view is that they would be signing a suicide note rather than an agreement, leaving them no option but to fight for their future.

It has struck a chord with their supporters, who were invited to meet the WRU on Monday. Caught in between claim and counterclaim, they have to decide where the truth lies, fans who believe in a sport having roots.

Welsh rugby has since clubs been formed in the early 1870s been tribal, often fiercely so. It as been a strength and a weakness, titling far more to the former, but what the battle between the WRU and the regions is ultimately about, as supporters on the #uniteandfight Twitter page appreciate, whether the sport in the country should be organic, centred on community, the playing and social sides or centrally controlled with an emphasis on the elite.

In political terms, the difference between the two is stark. Participatory democracy will be on show on Friday night at the Arms Park when supporters of the Blues and Ospreys protest at the WRU's stance. "Rugby should be the lifeblood of local towns and communities," said one #uniteandfight follower. "#WRU lost sight of this in 2003 hence this mess."

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