Irish clubs meet promotional agency

THE ongoing debate in relation to new international club competitions took on added significance at a meeting in Dublin last night. And, by extension, this could have considerable impact on European competition in the near future.

Representatives of the Irish first division clubs met with representatives of Premiere, one of the top sports promotional agencies in the world. I understand that representatives from England and Wales also attended the meeting.

The clubs were invited to the meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest to them and the promotional agency. "We went to the meeting to hear what the representatives of Premiere had to say. The situation in rugby is changing by the day and we see it as essential that we are kept informed on the ongoing developments that are of concern and interest to us as how one club representative put it to me.

Irish first division clubs have had meetings in recent times and have been represented at meetings in Britain on the concept of new competitions. Leading English and Welsh clubs are adamant that they want two-tier European competitions next season and a major say in the distribution of the revenue from those competitions. As yet the Welsh and English clubs have not entered the official European competition run by ERC next season.

Premiere is an international agency for sports promotion. The managing director is Jonathan Price, the former marketing director of the Welsh Rugby Union. The firm is the sole sponsoring agency for the Super 12 competition in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is partly owned by CSI the world's leading distributors of sports programmes. Among Premiere's clients are the Australian, New Zealand, South African and Argentinian rugby unions, Rugby Canada, Celtic Football Club and the Football Association of Wales.

Unlike the threats that have been made by clubs in England about the possibility of a break from the English rugby union, the Irish clubs have made it clear that they will not do anything without the approval of the IRFU.

Nonetheless, in the light of the development last night and other activities taking place, I believe that it would be in everyone's best interests were the IRFU to have a meeting with the first division clubs.

Another meeting is scheduled between the IRFU and all the Irish senior clubs, but with so much activity taking place and commercial concerns from outside the game now so deeply involved, it would be in the best interests of Irish rugby if a meeting with first division clubs took place as a matter of urgency. Let everything be put on the table, thus avoiding the unedifying scramble, charge and counter-charge we are witnessing in Britain.