Champions Cup 2020

[The Doc]

I wondered who would have the first wee pop at that one.

You know me - never miss an opportunity for a cheap gag

[Xanthippe]

I wondered who would have the first wee pop at that one.

You know me - never miss an opportunity for a cheap gag

You and John both!!

[blockhead]

What have the Nigels done for us?
From RugbyPass

'Commercially, it has been a disappointment... lots of reasons for that'

By Liam Heagney
Simon Halliday has admitted that the European tournaments run by EPCR haven’t been the soaraway commercial success people envisaged they would be.

The Swiss-based organisation fully took over from the Dublin-based ERC in 2015/16 following a 2014 civil war that resulted in English and French clubs breaking up the old set-up in the hope of generating additional finances.

A shared title sponsorship model was at the forefront of plans to increase revenues, but that ambition didn’t work out and the Champions Cup – which this season begins on Friday night with Gloucester hosting Toulouse at Kingsholm – reverted last term to a single title sponsor Heineken, who used to be the single title sponsor of the old ERC European Cup.

Heading into his fifth season as chairman, former England international Halliday told RugbyPass: “Onfield, we have made a lot of good improvements. We have hosted good finals, we have changed one of the criteria so Benetton qualified by right this season, we developed free-to-air where there wasn’t any and brought it to more people.

“Commercially, it has been a disappointment. Lots of reasons for that. The rebranding takes time.
“Secondly, a lot of sponsors have gone from being global into being pan-Europe, even local, so the way they allocate their money has changed, the way people look at traditional sponsorship has changed. Look what happened with Six Nations, for example.

“And our domestic, I keep saying to people our domestic stakeholders [the clubs] are much stronger now than they were five years ago, so people can get exposure to rugby through our stakeholders as much as they can through us.”

With the 2015 World Cup hosted in England, the 2015/16 Champions Cup took quite a while to arouse much interest. However, Halliday doesn’t believe there will be any spectator fatigue heading into 2019/20 due to the latest World Cup being played in Japan.

“You’d like to think so. Not just because a lot of northern hemisphere stars will be playing but a lot of the southern hemisphere stars play in Europe so once they are recovered from their rest periods, you would like to think that they will get involved and we will continue with that momentum.

“After the last World Cup the tournament took a while to get going because there was only so much that people could take on board, but I think the tournament is vastly improved from where it was four years ago in its format and the teams are very, very strong so yeah, there is real excitement still.”

[fourthirtythree]

What have the Nigels done for us?
From RugbyPass

'Commercially, it has been a disappointment... lots of reasons for that'


“And our domestic, I keep saying to people our domestic stakeholders [the clubs] are much stronger now than they were five years ago, so people can get exposure to rugby through our stakeholders as much as they can through us.”

The pan-European organisation was taken over by billionaire interests. It is diminished. It is working as designed.

[riocard911]

What have the Nigels done for us?
From RugbyPass

'Commercially, it has been a disappointment... lots of reasons for that'

By Liam Heagney
Simon Halliday has admitted that the European tournaments run by EPCR haven’t been the soaraway commercial success people envisaged they would be.

The Swiss-based organisation fully took over from the Dublin-based ERC in 2015/16 following a 2014 civil war that resulted in English and French clubs breaking up the old set-up in the hope of generating additional finances.

A shared title sponsorship model was at the forefront of plans to increase revenues, but that ambition didn’t work out and the Champions Cup – which this season begins on Friday night with Gloucester hosting Toulouse at Kingsholm – reverted last term to a single title sponsor Heineken, who used to be the single title sponsor of the old ERC European Cup.

Heading into his fifth season as chairman, former England international Halliday told RugbyPass: “Onfield, we have made a lot of good improvements. We have hosted good finals, we have changed one of the criteria so Benetton qualified by right this season, we developed free-to-air where there wasn’t any and brought it to more people.

“Commercially, it has been a disappointment. Lots of reasons for that. The rebranding takes time.
“Secondly, a lot of sponsors have gone from being global into being pan-Europe, even local, so the way they allocate their money has changed, the way people look at traditional sponsorship has changed. Look what happened with Six Nations, for example.

“And our domestic, I keep saying to people our domestic stakeholders [the clubs] are much stronger now than they were five years ago, so people can get exposure to rugby through our stakeholders as much as they can through us.”

With the 2015 World Cup hosted in England, the 2015/16 Champions Cup took quite a while to arouse much interest. However, Halliday doesn’t believe there will be any spectator fatigue heading into 2019/20 due to the latest World Cup being played in Japan.

“You’d like to think so. Not just because a lot of northern hemisphere stars will be playing but a lot of the southern hemisphere stars play in Europe so once they are recovered from their rest periods, you would like to think that they will get involved and we will continue with that momentum.

“After the last World Cup the tournament took a while to get going because there was only so much that people could take on board, but I think the tournament is vastly improved from where it was four years ago in its format and the teams are very, very strong so yeah, there is real excitement still.”

Blah blah, marketing-BS, blah, more PR-nonsense, wifflewaffle, pifflepaffle - the self-centredness of the Nigels is frightening to behold. Tally-ho!!! Get Brexit done!!! p.s. that Tory eejit Mark Francois is a rugby alickadoo - says everything really....

[Dave Cahill]

Basically they spent a fortune to insert one letter into a URL

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I heard Saracens are going to sponsor it.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Blah blah, marketing-BS, blah, more PR-nonsense, wifflewaffle, pifflepaffle - the self-centredness of the Nigels is frightening to behold. Tally-ho!!! Get Brexit done!!! p.s. that Tory eejit Mark Francois is a rugby alickadoo - says everything really....

Out of all UK and US politicians who are in the limelight right now I reckon that pound for pound he's the thickest.

Slightly related to rugby, the video Steve Barclay put out about Brexit being good for football is an absolute disgrace.

[Flash Gordon]

Basically they spent a fortune to insert one letter into a URL

And also reduced the commercial value of the competition. You forgot that.

Who in their right mind would look to the English for the commercial way forward in professional club rugby? Their efforts even in their own domestic league have been an unmitigated disaster.

[Twist]

This is an under-mentioned aspect of the Saracens thing. A lot of people have noted that there's no salary cap in European competition - the implication being that their titles aren't devalued in any way. But weren't we told repeatedly that everyone had to qualify 'on merit'? Their qualification, let alone their seeding, wasn't merited if they violated the rules to attain it.

[ronk]

Reasons such as people like him being allowed make decisions.

That was incoherent at best.

[curates_egg]

Basically they spent a fortune to insert one letter into a URL

And they still have finally (essentially) reverted to the Heineken Cup, which is what people recognised it as anyway.

I still, to this day, can only guess at the order of the initialism.

[Twist]

I actually preferred the old 24 team format. I know the quality was marginally lower in the group stages, but I think the competition was better for having more happening in the group stages

I even preferred the aesthetic of the old trophy over the new pointy one

[domhnallj]

Blah blah, marketing-BS, blah, more PR-nonsense, wifflewaffle, pifflepaffle - the self-centredness of the Nigels is frightening to behold. Tally-ho!!! Get Brexit done!!! p.s. that Tory eejit Mark Francois is a rugby alickadoo - says everything really....

Out of all UK and US politicians who are in the limelight right now I reckon that pound for pound he's the thickest.

Slightly related to rugby, the video Steve Barclay put out about Brexit being good for football is an absolute disgrace.

Francois is a little strutting c~*k who absolutely no-one takes seriously. Barclays video is getting the reception it deserves.

[joooooe]

The parallels between the reformation of the European club rugby competitions and Brexit are striking.

[Dave Cahill]

Saracens have not selected any of their top players for the trip to Racing

[leinsterforever]

Saracens have not selected any of their top players for the trip to Racing

15. Matt Gallagher
14. Sean Maitland
13. Alex Lozowski
12. Nick Tompkins
11. Rotimi Segun
10. Manu Vunipola
9. Ben Spencer
1. Rhys Carre
2. Jack Singleton
3. Titi Lamositele
4. Will Skelton
5. Callum Hunter-Hill
6. Nick Isiekwe
7. Ben Earl
8. Jackson Wray ©

16. Joe Gray
17. Sam Crean
18. Vincent Koch
19. Joel Kpoku
20. Sean Reffell
21. Tom Whiteley
22. Damian Willemse
23. Duncan Taylor

Wonder how they'll get on. I wouldn't put it past them to still be extremely tough to beat.

I'd like to think the Leinster team sans internationals we saw during the World Cup would get on quite well in Europe.

[Oldschool]

Blah blah, marketing-BS, blah, more PR-nonsense, wifflewaffle, pifflepaffle - the self-centredness of the Nigels is frightening to behold. Tally-ho!!! Get Brexit done!!! p.s. that Tory eejit Mark Francois is a rugby alickadoo - says everything really....

Out of all UK and US politicians who are in the limelight right now I reckon that pound for pound he's the thickest.

Slightly related to rugby, the video Steve Barclay put out about Brexit being good for football is an absolute disgrace.

Have you not heard the rumour, Hillary is making a comeback and if she's the presidential nominee for the democrats (that actually came up as femocrats in the predictive text, is their such a word even) then Trump baby is a shoe in for another term, time to get on to yer congress man straight away.
As an aside and not the thread for it but what is going on with the democrats nomination race.
Have they become so enthalled themselves by Trump that they're dropping the ball.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Saracens have not selected any of their top players for the trip to Racing

I read something a few weeks ago that all England players were getting a month off after the World Cup regardless of when their last game was. Not sure if that just relates to Saracens or all of the clubs. haven't checked the other team sheets.

[Dave Cahill]

Saracens have not selected any of their top players for the trip to Racing

I read something a few weeks ago that all England players were getting a month off after the World Cup regardless of when their last game was. Not sure if that just relates to Saracens or all of the clubs. haven't checked the other team sheets.

They're back for the other clubs by and large.