Post by caspday on Sept 18, 2012 21:01:23 GMT -6
"But because the BT deal involves such a large injection ofOfficial Cardinals Jerseys zyhaa919 money, everyone will receive more and what is already a good competition will become even bigger, better and stronger."Premiership Rugby last week agreed a television deal with BT Vision worth ￡152m over four years. The biggest part of it, more than ￡100m, was for the right to televise English clubs in cross-border competition, but the ERC stakeholders will be told that BT are prepared to replace Sky as the principal broadcasters of the whole tournament.
"Everybody wins," said Wray. "There would be so much extra moneyAuthentic Cardinals Jersey coming into the European game that we would be able to afford a third tier competition involving teams from the smaller unions. This is not a selfish bid by English and French clubs to grab everything for ourselves: all six competing nations will be better off."All we are asking for in return is fairness. Why should the team that finishes bottom of the Pro 12 automatically qualify for the Heineken Cup but clubs in England and France have to give blood to get there?
Why should the Amlin Challenge Cup effectively be anKevin Kolb Jerseys Anglo-French tournament? RaboDirect teams should earn the right to be in the Heineken Cup."There is an acceptance among RaboDirect sides that qualification should be looked at. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Treviso and Zebre know they will be in the Heineken Cup even if they finish at the bottom of the league, but a Welsh region or Irish province could finish fourth and miss out.The Welsh regions would welcome the extra money, but their union, together with Ireland's, is happy with the qualification process because it allows international players to be regularly rested.
The bulk of ERC's board is made up of representatives from Larry Fitzgerald Jerseysunions, with only England, France and Wales having directors from participating teams.Premiership Rugby is going mob-handed to Dublin. In addition to its ERC director, the chief executive Mark McCafferty and the deputy chairman, Bruce Craig, Bath's owner, will be at the meeting, along with the RFU's representative, Rob Andrew. ERC itself says there can be no deal with BT because of the contract extension it has agreed with Sky, an agreement that the English and French clubs maintain is void because they had already served their notice to pull out of Europe at the end of next season.
If one part of the battle is between the English and French Michael Floyd Jerseysclubs and the Pro12 unions, the other is between Sky, the dominant player in club rugby television in the professional era, and BT, a company with capitalisation 10 times greater than Sky's that sees sports rights as an opportunity to reclaim some of its telephone and broadband business lost to Sky and Virgin Media."Sky have been superb for sport, not just rugby," said Wray. "There is now a new and very big player in the market, and competition can only be good.