Rugby: club versus country issues resolved
Under the new agreement entered into by the RFU and Premier Rugby (which represents the 12 English clubs competing in the Guinness Premiership), effective from June 2008, the RFU is to pay to Premier Rugby compensation in the region of £12million per annum. Of this, Guinness Premiership clubs will receive an initial payment of £145,000 (rising to £175,000) for each player from their club who is selected to join up with a 32-man England squad for each of the autumn internationals, the RBS 6 Nations and the England summer tour. Selected players will be on England duty for a period of two weeks leading up to each of the series of matches and then for the duration of that international window.
In addition, a central fund of £2million will be paid to clubs to develop players qualified to play for England. Premier Rugby has also obtained sole control over television and sponsorship rights to the Guinness Premiership and sole commercial rights to the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge Cup in England. These commercial rights were previously shared with the RFU. In return, Premier Rugby has agreed to relinquish its shareholding in the Heineken Cup.
In an attempt to ensure financial parity between those Guinness Premiership clubs providing the bulk of the England squad and those who provide few, if any, such players, Premier Rugby had planned to demand that clubs hand back a cut of such money so that it could be re-distributed on a more equal basis amongst all elite clubs - Wasps, Leicester and Bath supplied half of England's squad for the 2007 IRB World Cup. However, the RFU has warned clubs that Premier Rugby would be in breach of the new agreement if the clubs agreed to this. Therefore, as an alternative Premier plans to distribute the monies received from the sale of television and sponsorship rights in such a way that those clubs who do not supply England internationals receive a higher proportion than those clubs who supply a large number of such players.
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