French league president Yann Roubert supports reducing the Investec Champions Cup from 24 teams to 16 and says South Africa’s future will need to be discussed.
The tournament currently consists of eight qualifiers from each of the French Top 14, English Premiership and URC.
English clubs are reportedly driving plans for a revamped 16-team competition that would scrap the pool stage and begin with a two-legged round of 16 before moving into quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.
The proposal has now received backing from France.
“We are in favour of having a more elite European competition, maybe by coming down to 16 clubs rather than 24, so we have only very high-level matches,” Roubert told The Telegraph.
“We would provide five or six [teams], because we are three leagues, so we should have at least five, plus the winner [of the Champions Cup],” he said.
“That is less than eight, but I think that for the good of rugby, even if obviously it will leave two clubs out, it seems to be the right solution to have this more elite competition.”
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Any significant overhaul would have to address the involvement of South African teams, who joined EPCR competition via the URC in 2022.
The Sharks became the first South African team to win an EPCR trophy when they lifted the second-tier Challenge Cup in 2024, but none of the country’s clubs has progressed past the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
Roubert acknowledged that their longer-term participation remains uncertain.
“They have never made it to the semi-finals and we do not know what happened, because for sure they’ve got the players to succeed,” he said.
The current competition arrangements run until 2030, with Roubert expecting discussions over the next format to take place within EPCR.
“This is where we might think of being maybe a bit more selective, elitist,” he said.
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The post French back ‘elitist’ Champions Cup appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
French league president Yann Roubert supports reducing the Investec Champions Cup from 24 teams to 16 and says South Africa’s future will need to be discussed.
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