ENGLAND RUGBY LIMITED MEDIA BRIEFING
ERIC Room, Twickenham, Thursday April 29, 2004
Present: Francis Baron (RFU Chief Executive), Chris Spice (RFU Performance Director), Howard Thomas (Premier Rugby Chief Executive), John Rennocks (England Rugby Limited Chairman), Richard Prescott (RFU Communications Director)
OPENING REMARKS
Richard Prescott: An attendance of 40,000 plus expected for Army v Navy game at Twickenham on May 1. The Freedom of Borough of Rugby being accepted by members of the World Cup squad on May 3, and the Freedom of Borough of Richmond is being accepted by Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Leonard and Joe Worsley on May 10.
Francis Baron: Worcester promotion – the ERL board has considered the auditors report on Worcester’s facilities and the club will be cleared to join the Premiership subject to planning permission being granted next month for their ground capacity to rise to 8,200.
Image rights – player benefits are divided between the RFU, who deal with image rights, and PRL, who are responsible for match fees. The RFU received a proposal from the Professional Rugby Players Association (PRA) in March, made a counter-proposal and discussions have taken place. FB hoped that the final details would be dealt with at a meeting next week. “We’re of an opinion that this matter will be swiftly resolved,” he said, adding that an agreement with the PRA would require the approval of Premier Rugby Limited (PRL) as part of the Long Form Agreement.
Chris Spice: England Qualified Players – the task group chaired by CS reported to the England Rugby Limited (ERL) board on March 23. Training days – the dialogue continues between ERL and PRL in the hope of reaching an agreement that would span the next three years. Sevens – Mike Friday has been appointed to replace Joe Lydon as the England Sevens Coach. Friday has been supporting Lydon for the last two years, during which time England twice defended the Hong Kong Sevens title.
Howard Thomas: BPA – Premier Rugby has announced a new partnership with the British Paralympic Association and the GB Wheelchair Rugby Team. It includes fundraising activities and further links between the sports. End of Season – the Zurich Premiership season will end on a high with nine clubs still in contention for honours and European Qualification. An attendance of 50-60,000 is expected for the ZP final. Zurich A League – NEC Harlequins won the title after beating Northampton Saints in a two-legged final.
QUESTIONS
Steve Bale (Daily Express), Huw Richards (Financial Times) and Peter Jackson (Daily Mail) asked if any hiccups were expected in Worcester being granted planning permission and asked why they hadn’t obtained it sooner.
FB replied that the auditors had spoken to the planning officer and were given a strong indication that permission would be given. If it didn’t happen then the board would reconvene to discuss the matter. Questions about the timing of the increase of the capacity at Sixways should really be directed to (Worcester owner) Cecil Duckworth.
Chris Jones (Evening Standard) asked if a deal would be completed over England players fees and Image Rights before the tour to New Zealand and Australia in June. Mick Cleary (Daily Telegraph) asked if the tour would go ahead without any threat of strike action.
FB replied that the RFU were hoping to conclude a deal over image rights in March but the talks were interrupted during the Six Nations campaign. He was optimistic that one decent meeting would fill in all the details. The delay was not on points of principle but on detail, and he believed there were ways of strengthening the benefits package and putting an agreement in place that would last until after the 2007 World Cup and including image and IP rights, bonuses and other elements.
HT said that the budget for match fees comes out of the commercial income from England rugby and the amount was not large enough at present. A formula for the payments was in place under the terms of the Long Form Agreement but that had not delivered the levels of payment the players wanted. The reasons were that commercial expectations had not been reached for a number of reasons. PRL was trying to find another formula to meet the players’ expectations and he was optimistic that a solution would be found.
David Hands (The Times) asked if there was any prospect of compensation to clubs who produced more England qualified players in prospect.
CS replied that there was a feeling that clubs were not compensated enough and the message from the England Qualified Players task group was that it was an issue to be explored. If a solution could be found in the next month, he hoped that an element of compensation to clubs could be introduced as soon as possible, maybe before the start of the 2004/05 season.
Chris Hewett (Independent), Peter Jackson, Chris Jones and Mick Cleary asked about the reaction to the reported interest of a South African consortium ‘buying’ a place in the Premiership for a new team playing in London.
HT replied that ideally all Premiership teams should be made up of England-qualified players but that was not going to happen because of legal constraints. Effectively the ZP is a European league and legally that includes South Africa because of the nature of European employment law. The EC was creating new dynamics for sports administrators and becoming harder to manage and challenge. He was ‘not comfortable’ with the prospect; it was a problem that PRL had to manage and live with.
FB stressed on a number of occasions that the RFU management board had not received any formal proposals about a club buy-out and therefore was not in a position to respond any further to media comment on this subject. To action anything the board needed to receive a proposal and that had not taken place. There were regulations in place that any prospective buyers needed to follow. He declined to speculate on how the board would deal with any potential proposal because every one is different. Dealing with any such proposal would, however, be likely to take months rather than days. His overriding concern was to do what is best for England rugby, to make sure that England stays at the top of the world game and to make sure their was a conveyor belt of talent from all age groups into the national team and defend the Rugby World Cup in 2007 and beyond.
HT added that in the past PRL had turned down a club previously trying to ‘buy’ promotion but PRL had to operate within the confines of the law. There is no limit on the number of South African players allowed to play in a Premiership team. He added that PRL had guidelines in the geographical distribution of its clubs.
Howard Thomas was asked about whether PRL had been asked to move the end of the 2004/05 Zurich Premiership season forward to give players the chance to prepare for the Lions tour to New Zealand.
HT replied that moving the end of the season forward had been considered but was unlikely to happen because it would shorten the rest period available to players this summer. Moving the season forward would require agreement from all tournaments. He had spoken to both Zurich and Skysports, who are primary partners of the Premiership and the Lions tour, and both understand the situation. Selected players will join the Lions at the end of the domestic season, subject to their involvement in the four teams contesting the end of season final and wildcard final. The Lions leave for New Zealand before the ZP final takes place on May 28. PRL was working positively with the Lions. Negotiations were continuing about compensation to clubs for player release. He added that it wasn’t the job of the professional league to help the Lions, it was his job to work in harmony with them. He added that the French season structure would make it difficult for the Lions to play a warm-up game against France. It would have to be against another country. |
