GUINNESS PRO14 bosses have poured cold water over the prospect of the four Irish provinces playing in a British and Irish League.
With private equity firm CVC expected to invest in the Pro14, it has led to intense speculation surrounding the creation of a potential 24-team cross-border competition.
But Pro14 chief executive Martin Anayi has ruled out Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht playing in such a competition, citing player welfare as the main reason it won’t get off the ground.
“We’ve had no chats about a British and Irish League,” said Anayi. “That’s news to us. We’re focusing on the Pro14. I sometimes laugh because there’s almost ignorance around there being a European Cup. That’s why we play those great games against the English and the French clubs.
“We love the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup. If there was British and Irish League, it would be threatening [for Europe], because there’d be no weekends for it.
“It depends on how you would structure it. We’re already looking at how you reduce the amount of weekends rugby players play in a year.
“It’s a real challenge and a conundrum nobody has come up with the right solution for. That’s why we have what we have.
Rugby players play too much rugby. What we need to do and we’ve started to do is reduce that burden and to make every game more important. That’s what our aim has to be overall.”
The Pro14 broke new ground for the 2017-18 campaign with the introduction of South African franchises Cheetahs and Southern Kings.
Previously, Anayi had been working hard to expand the Pro14’s boundaries even further, with talk of more South African sides, and even a North American or Georgian franchise, being added.
For now, Anayi has ruled out further expansion and insists his focus is on bridging the gap between the top and the bottom half of the Pro14.
He said: “We’re staying at 14 teams for the foreseeable future.
“I want the 14 teams to be strong though. When you don’t have promotion and relegation, the bottom half of the table really needs to push the top half of the table.
“We’re getting to the point where one to eight are very strong, but we need nine to 14 being able to beat one to eight on any given day. I am keen on expansion personally, because I like the game growing in territories where I think it should be strong.
“It’s probably very naive, but I love the idea of rugby being strong in America. Are we the best way for that to happen now that they’ve got a domestic league? Probably not.
Are we better off supporting that domestic league? Probably, yes. My view on it has changed over the last couple of years. We aren’t pursuing it anymore.”
Cardiff will host the 2019-20 Pro14 final and Anayi revealed the competition’s future showpiece events are likely to take place in Italy or South Africa.
He said: “We have had lots of interest from Spain, the USA and England [to host finals], but we’ve got our board members and we need to look them in the eye and ask: ‘Have we done enough to support you and what you’re doing in your territory?’
“If we haven’t put a final there, then we haven’t.”
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