French clubs set to confirm Heineken Cup boycott

The French national league (LNR) is set to confirm at a board meeting today that the nation's teams will withdraw from European club competition.

"Once the English teams said they would join the French in a boycott, the only response our unions could offer was to warn them of legal action. A settlement through negotiation now appears impossible," LNR sources told Reuters.

LNR chairman Serge Blanco told sports daily L'Equipe a withdrawal by both French and English clubs would probably kill off the Heineken Cup as the two countries have provided nine of the 11 winners of the competition since it began in 1995.

"We'll spend a year without European competition. Then we'll try to think up something else," the former international full-back added.

"I find it regrettable that a competition as great as this is being sacrificed and that the RFU (England's Rugby Football Union) is not making an effort to match our reasonable demands."

The LNR board meeting will take place in an hotel close to Paris-Orly Airport. The French Federation chairman Bernard Lapasset, who has been trying to mediate a solution, has been invited to attend.

In January, the French clubs were first to announce they would not take part in European competition next season for strategic and financial reasons.

At the time, Blanco said the conflict centred on the RFU's refusal to abide by an agreement to hand England's top clubs 50 per cent of their shares and voting rights in the European Rugby Cup (ERC).