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European Professional Club Rugby has fielded interest from 23 venues in 10 countries to host the 2028, 2029 and 2030 Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals, while a proposal to cut the Champions Cup from 24 to 16 teams is gaining support in France.
European Professional Club Rugby ( EPCR) has received bids from 23 venues across 10 countries to host future Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals weekends. The organisation is preparing to decide where the 2028, 2029 and 2030 finals will be staged.
Dublin Venues Lead Finals Bids
Dublin's Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium are both seen as viable options for an Irish finals weekend. The 2027 Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals will be held in Lyon next May, at the home ground of Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais. EPCR is keen to announce the final venues for 2028, 2029 and 2030. Interest has come from cities including Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Amsterdam, New York and Hong Kong, according to reports.
The hosting of a finals weekend at Lansdowne Road in 2023 could push the possibility of a return to Ireland further back. The GAA would have to give its blessing for Croke Park, but there is not an obvious clash with Leinster football and hurling finals based on this year's dates. Leinster beat Northampton Saints at Croke Park in a Champions Cup semi-final in 2024 in front of a record crowd of 82,300.
Italy is believed to be a preferred venue at some point, with Rome's Stadio Olimpico one of the few Italian stadiums meeting EPCR's minimum capacity requirement of 50,000. However, the traditional finals date in May clashes with the Serie A football season, and the presence of Roma and Lazio means the city is unlikely to be free for an entire weekend. Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands are also among the countries under consideration.
Roubert Suggests Elite Format Change
EPCR is open to changing the Champions Cup format after recent comments from the head of France's Top 14. Yann Roubert, the head of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, said: 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.
Under the French suggestion, the pool stages would be scrapped in favour of a two-legged last-16 and quarter-final stage before a semi-final and final. The current Champions Cup format, featuring four weekends of pool action and then single-leg knockout matches from the last-16 onwards, is locked in until the end of the 2029-30 season. EPCR is believed to be open to discussing the calendar, number of teams and format with stakeholders.
Changing to a 16-team model would aim to make the Champions Cup a more premium tournament while strengthening the quality and appeal of the Challenge Cup. A concern for organisers is that teams can qualify from their pool with just one win, which harms the competition's image. Some sides therefore pick weaker teams for away matches, producing one-sided fixtures that leave fans and broadcasters unsatisfied.
Champions Cup Bonus Point Rule Shift
A cut to 16 clubs would seek to address that by ensuring only very high-level matches take place. The calendar has already changed this season, with two one-off weekends of European action in October and December instead of back-to-back weekends before Christmas. In January, the calendar allows for a return to consecutive European weekends. Premier Sports are on the last of a three-year cycle as a primary broadcaster.
The European tournaments have adopted a new bonus point rule already used in the French Top 14, Super Rugby and this season the English Championship. A try-scoring bonus point will only be available to teams who win a match and score three or more tries than their opponents, rather than the previous reward for scoring four tries. EPCR studied data over a three-season sample period before deciding on the change.
The findings suggested the try bonus point for scoring four was an unjust reward for a team that was heavily beaten on the scoreboard. The data showed that teams winning easily switched off towards the end of matches, offering up a cheap four-try bonus point. The premise is that no team should receive such a reward when it is appreciably dominated on the field and on the scoreboard.
New Qualification System For Tournaments
The losing bonus point has been retained for sides that finish seven points or less behind their opponents, keeping an in-match incentive for a losing team to chase all the way to the final whistle. Another alteration will see three teams from each of the four six-team pools automatically qualify for the Round of 16, giving a total of 12, with the remaining four progressing via a cross-pool ranking.
Clubs ranked 13th to 16th will qualify for the Round of 16, and the next four, ranked 17th to 20th, will drop down into the Challenge Cup Round of 16. The bottom four clubs will drop out of European competition for that season. The changes reflect a wider desire to make the Champions Cup more competitive and to directly strengthen the quality and appeal of the Challenge Cup.
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The42_ie:23 venues in 10 countries have shown interest in hosting future Champions Cup finals weekendThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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