ERC can confirm that the Federation Française de Rugby (FFR) has withdrawn its application to host the 2014 Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup finals due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding the availability of the Stade de France.
The Board of ERC will now seek proposals from the other participating nations in the tournaments and will aim to confirm the host city and venues by the end of June.
Dublin 2013 was the third successive season that both the Amlin Challenge Cup and Heineken Cup finals were staged in the same city as a part of European club rugby’s showpiece weekend.
A total of 1,068,878 spectators have passed through the turnstiles at the 18 Heineken Cup finals to date. Since 2003, the venue for the Heineken Cup final has been selected before of the start of the tournament, while from 2005, tickets have been on sale from up to 12 months in advance with the objective of maximising attendances and building ERC’s weekend festival of European club rugby.
Following this week’s pool draws for the 2013/14 Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup tournaments, ERC has now begun the process of confirming the fixtures for the 19th European season which is set to kick-off on the weekend of 10/11/12/13 October 2013.
The pool fixtures will be confirmed in mid-July following a scheduling process which includes consultation with the 44 participant European clubs, league bodies and broadcast partners across each territory.
2013/14 European club rugby weekends
Round 1 10/11/12/13 October 2013
Round 2 17/18/19/20 October 2013
Round 3 5/6/7/8 December 2013
Round 4 12/13/14/15 December 2013
Round 5 9/10/11/12 January 2014
Round 6 16/17/18/19 January 2014
Quarter-finals 3/4/5/6 April 2014
Semi-finals 25/26/27 April 2014
Finals 23/24/25 May 2014
2013/14 Heineken Cup pools
Pool 1 Leinster Rugby, Northampton Saints, Ospreys, Castres Olympique
Pool 2 Toulon, Cardiff Blues, Glasgow Warriors, Exeter Chiefs
Pool 3 Toulouse, Saracens, Connacht Rugby, Zebre
Pool 4 ASM Clermont Auvergne, Harlequins, Scarlets, Racing Metro 92
Pool 5 Ulster Rugby, Leicester Tigers, Montpellier, Benetton Treviso
Pool 6 Munster Rugby, Perpignan, Edinburgh Rugby, Gloucester Rugby
2013/14 Amlin Challenge Cup pools
Pool 1 Biarritz Olympique, Sale Sharks, Worcester Warriors, Oyonnax
Pool 2 Bath Rugby, Newport Gwent Dragons, Bordeaux-Begles, Mogliano Rugby
Pool 3 Brive, Newcastle Falcons, Cammi Rugby Calvisano, Bucharest Wolves
Pool 4 London Wasps, Rugby Viadana, Bayonne, Grenoble
Pool 5 Stade Francais Paris, London Irish, I Cavalieri Prato, Olympus Rugby XV
