A new European Cup accord "will be signed this week after nearly two years of fraught negotiations and stand-offs," according to Paul Rees of the London GUARDIAN. The six unions involved in the tournament, together with officials from competing sides in England, France and Wales "were meeting in Paris on Monday to finalise the details." It was hoped that the stakeholders "would be in a position to sign the heads of agreement at the meeting," but the translation of the document into Italian "was only completed over the weekend and their rugby federation said it had not had time to fully scrutinise it." The running of the tournament "will pass from European Rugby Cup Ltd to the auspices of Six Nations committee," with the day-to-day business handled by an exec board "strongly influenced by the clubs and regions." The commercial reins "will be held by a sub-committee made up of representatives from each of the three leagues that supply teams to the tournament" -- the Premiership, the Top 14 and the Pro 12. The one outstanding issue is the broadcasting of the tournament. ERC signed a contract extension with Sky in Sept. '12 when the Premiership clubs sold their rights for cross-border matches to BT Sport. Sky and BT were reported at the weekend "to be cautiously optimistic about a compromise being reached" (GUARDIAN, 3/17).
