by Jacques Raynaud is talking numbers. The affable Frenchman is a good place to start. He probably didn’t set out to defend the reputation and credibility of the Champions Cup during his first season as chief executive of European Professional Club Rugby, but he’s doing quite well.
“The round of 16 and the quarterfinals produced a very strong set of numbers,” Raynaud said. “If you look at the attendance, we hit 1.3 million attendance this weekend, and we’ll beat last season’s all-time high of 1.3 million.
“If you look at TV, we’re up in double digits overall but if you look at individual markets, the France v Ireland game had a market share of over 20 per cent, which is really good.
“Our digital engagement has also transformed, following an investment to revamp our fan-facing element and we are now reaping the rewards as we have just crossed one million followers on social media – which is still low, in my opinion, but is a symbolic sign. According to our sponsors, they also have the highest social media engagement rates from their partners.
“Our ticket sales have also increased significantly over the last two weeks for the finals at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and we are very close to a technical sell-out. So if I look at the competition from the CEO’s point of view, he delivers a strong team of numbers.”
And yet Raynaud, who has a background in sports media rights rather than rugby administration, says he is neither deaf nor blind to the fallout generated by the Bulls’ controversial decision to leave 11 Springboks behind in their quarter-final win at Northampton Saints. Last Saturday.
Bulls could be fined
Teams have been guilty of sending weak sides to dead-rubber pool games before, but never the quarter-finals, which in the competition’s halcyon days used to light up cities across the continent with such tribalism and vibrant color to combat the appeal. of the Six Nations.
What should have been a gargantuan contest between the best sides in England and South Africa turned into a training run for the Saints in the second half, resulting in a successful Saturday night broadcast slot for viewers. reach prime time at a time when EPCR was. in negotiations with English broadcasters over a new TV deal.
It also brought the South African sides’ integration into the European competition under scrutiny, given the logistical challenges of flying 6,000-odd miles between games just seven days apart, as well as a sense of their lack of commitment to it.
While Raynaud insists that perception (South Africa’s indifference) is wrong, he is undertaking a “fact-finding” mission to understand the Bulls’ decision to send the second-string side to Northampton, and it could be a range of options available to him. depending on the outcome, including a possible fine.
“It was one aspect of an excellent weekend,” insists Raynaud, “and we have discussed it with SA Rugby and Edgar Rathbone, the Bulls’ CEO.
“We also know that rather than looking at the details to work on including South Africa, which is only their second season, we have to win over the hearts and minds of the fans.”
Which brings the conversation around to the format of the competition. On the positive side, the Champions Cup has made significant progress in regaining the momentum it lost since with numerous changes exacerbated by the pandemic.
But the logistical challenge of playing the round of 16 and quarter-finals on consecutive weekends with games in two hemispheres between the domestic league schedules is clearly not sustainable.
EPCR, since replacing former governing body ERC in 2014, has faced the Gordian knot challenge of running the elite European competitions as it demands agreement across three leagues (and unions and club owners). and at a time when global calendar negotiations were being prioritized, as well as reducing the Champions Cup from nine to eight weekends in the season.
Short-term solutions are already being poured. The competitions will be reviewed at the end of the season and if an agreement can be reached it may be possible to build more of a gap between the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, with some pushing for a return to the final. the traditional beginning of October. That would reduce the opportunity for teams to prepare full-strength sides but give clubs more time to market exhibition wins and sell more tickets and hospitality packages.
More significantly, perhaps, it is also understood that some interested parties are once again supporting the transformation of the Champions Cup into a more elite competition by reducing the number of participating clubs from 24 to 18.
With eight of the 10 clubs in the Premier League currently qualifying for the Champions Cup, it can hardly be described as ‘elite’ and the current format removes much of the qualifying danger from the domestic leagues.
‘The return to pools format worked’
An 18-club competition would feature three pools of six, with each club playing each other once except those from the same domestic league – with the three pool winners and the best runners-up automatically qualifying for fourth place. – finals, with the next eight best clubs facing each other in a knockout round to reach the last eight.
The automatic qualifiers will have the benefit of earning a holiday weekend – to compensate the clubs for missing out on a home game during the ‘barrage’ round – and also earn more time to sell tickets and their home quarter-final to market with ease. the travel burden on South African franchisees, if qualified.
It was a plan that was scrapped last year due to a lack of agreement on the number of clubs each league would provide. It is not yet clear whether it can garner enough support to become a reality now and for now Raynaud insisted there is no proposal on the table.
“The return to pools format worked this season. Sports became more dangerous, increased participation and increased viewership. We don’t want to change this,” Raynaud said.
“Obviously, there is a desire to ‘premium’ the Investec Champions Cup because the truth is, the higher the premium given to a competition, the more attention it receives. We are taking a holistic view, and will continue to discuss how the competition develops – but we are not looking to change the format in the near future.”
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