English game on brink of collapse

Since brinkmanship is the customary tactic in modern day rugby, the latest stand-off between the Five Nations and the English RFU over the compromise accord of 1996 is sure to run for a few more days at least. But given that the Five Nations begins in under three weeks, last night's decision to expel England has to be taken seriously.

In this latest game of bluff and counter-bluff, it could yet be that there will be a route for England to come back into the fold. But the ball is now in Twickenham's court. The Celtic unions, in particular, have grown weary of the RFU's non payment of monies from their controversial £87.5 million Sky deal, as agreed two-and-a-half years ago. If the stand-off continues for long, then the contingency plans for Italy's inclusion at England's expense will be irreversible.

England have been down this road before. They were briefly expelled prior to the compromise accord in 1996, and have clearly been dragging their feet over the redistribution of their Sky deal. For all that, the decision by the Five Nations Committee seems a tad arbitrary and dangerously close to the competition itself, given the millions which may have to be paid out in insurance and compensation. Bearing that in mind, it seems unbelievable that England will be excluded. But even if they are re-admitted, the off-field wounds are growing deeper.

No doubt all is not entirely as it seems either. The English claim that the French have never signed this accord, nor have they supplied the relevant details of their own television deals as part of the information required to fulfil the ensuring redistribution of income. This has not been satisfactorily addressed.

England have become increasingly isolated in the European game, and compared to their Celtic brethren, they are the truly myopic ones. They have utterly failed to control their clubs and, hence, their leading players. Their lamentable and arrogantly independent deal with Sky seemed motivated only by the thought of a few quick bucks.

For starters, they showed a dismissive disregard for their Celtic neighbours, and just when the game needed more exposure than ever before, that deal resulted in fewer people watching the game than ever before by effectively denying terrestrial viewers access to it. And this for a minority sport?

The RFU appear to have been guilty of financially over-extending themselves, just as their clubs have done. No less than Cardiff Arms Park, the unsustainable plans for the development of Twickenham have drained the RFU coffers. Hence, the radical staff cuts at a top-heavy Twickenham administration, and perhaps also the unwillingness to part with the Sky lucre?

As for the clubs, ruse has followed ruse. First there was the misguided attempt to set up an Anglo-French competition, then an Anglo-Welsh league, and then a British League - hastily conceived and unveiled as a panacea to all ills barely a fortnight before the start of the season.

No less now than then, the British League concept seems no more than a smokescreen for the English clubs to invite in Cardiff and Swansea, thereby driving a further wedge through Welsh rugby and flagrantly breaching the International Board (IB) regulations and the laughable Mayfair Agreement between the clubs and Twickenham. The misguided men in Twickenham nevertheless went along with it.

The clubs' motives are simple enough: self-rule for self-interest. Quite what Twickenham's vision or future direction of the game is remains impossible to decipher. In so far as one can tell, it seems to be a future largely run by the English clubs, embracing only the French, Cardiff and Swansea, and to hell with the Scots, Welsh and Irish, with the RFU themselves running only the amateur game and international rugby.

They even agreed to the clubs' request to tamper with the Five Nations Championship by pushing it back to later in the season and running it over five successive weekends. As was shown by last season's flawed change in the championship's structure - pushing it back in the calendar and switching some games to Sundays - you tamper with this one golden egg in European rugby at your peril. Now it's in danger of suffering irreparable damage.

The Five Nations is the financial bedrock upon which European rugby is based. No matter how two-tiered it became in the 1990s, no matter how wretched the rugby, every game is a guaranteed sell-out and a televisual feast. It is a winner, and all the more so had Twickenham realised that unity is strength. The European Cup was the next most viable option, so the English clubs did their best to scupper it and in the process took unwavering aim at their own feet at a probable cost of at least £4 million.

The domestic club game in Britain and Ireland isn't and never will be viable. But the English club owners - misguided by some ego-driven desire to emulate their footballing equivalents, or, in Sir John Hall's case, to wear both caps - labour under the illusion that one day they can fund their gross over-expenditure.

In light of that, they now want more control over the administration of the game and television deals than even the likes of Manchester United have. Just as the English FA runs the Premiership, and UEFA the European competitions, so rugby needs to have a centralised authority. The clubs' case with the European Commission against the IB's rule is probably their last throw of the dice. If they don't win that, it's probable that the English club owners will bail out, leaving homeless and financially crippled clubs behind them.

By their delayed and meek counter-submission to the commission (reneging on another promise to the IB), the English RFU seem to be implicitly supporting their clubs, little realising that they will be amongst the biggest losers if that nightmare scenario ever comes to pass.

There is an alternative scenario, whereby a properly tiered structure embraces the Five Nations at its apex, which would benefit everyone. This would be supported in turn by an ERC run European Cup (in which the English and French receive a larger slice of the financial cake) and then the domestic fare. Until such time as Twickenham and the English clubs accept this, then the international community has to stand up to them.

As things stand, England have become the pariahs of Europe, and the English game looks on the brink of collapse. Their plight appears hopeless. The question, perhaps, is whether they bring everyone else down with them, or the rest can survive without them.