French 'Non' spells an end to Euro Cup

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The doomsday scenario descended at Orly Airport, outside Paris, where the 14 top French clubs voted unanimously to reaffirm their boycott decision first taken on January 16.

And that left the 12 English Premiership clubs no alternative but to enforce the threat they made earlier this week to walk out with the French in sympathy.

Scroll down to read more:

French rebel: Serge Blanco

The destruction of next season's Heineken European Cup tournament will cost £15million, the French having decided they could afford to write off the £5.5m from next season's event.

"We love the European Cup as much as anyone else," said Blanco. "The French clubs have invested a lot in this competition but we cannot continue to be walked over. Either respect us or don't respect us. The only way to respect us is to give us our shareholding."

The French Rugby Federation had agreed to split their shareholding in the tournament promoters, European Rugby Cup Ltd, but the RFU has consistently refused to agree to a similar share with their clubs.

The French hoped that their boycott, agreed almost three months ago, would force Twickenham's hand.

"We thought we could find an agreement," said Blanco. "Unfortunately, that is not the case. The stumbling block is not the shareholding for the French clubs but that the RFU refuse to let go any of their percentage to their clubs. We wanted this competition to go ahead for sport's sake."

Within hours of the resounding Non! from Paris, Premier Rugby Ltd confirmed that the English, too, had pulled out of next year's event — again blaming the RFU for allegedly reneging on a deal struck last October to split their 16.3 percentage shareholding with the clubs.

"Regrettably, while the French and Italian Federations have confirmed this position, the RFU appears no longer to accept this," said a Premier Rugby statement.

"The result is that the French and English clubs are not willing to participate in the absence of a new agreement based on last year's position."