100% confirmed, 12 teams in the ML next season.

danthefan

After all the stuff about payments from the Italians, Scots being booted out, etc, it is confirmed Italians will join the ML next season, by Celtic Rugby.

Celtic Rugby is delighted to announce today (Monday, 8 March, 2010) that from next season the Magners League will include two teams from Italy. The 10th season of the tournament will see the Magners League expanded to four nations as Italy joins Ireland, Scotland and Wales in a high profile 12-team cross-border competition designed to considerably enhance both playing standards and commercial viability for the competing countries.

The three Celtic Unions have unanimously agreed to the introduction of two new Italian super sides and the four-year agreement will see Benetton Treviso and Aironi Rugby competing against defending champions Munster and the other nine Celtic teams on a home and away basis.

Benetton Treviso will have their headquarters at Stadio Comunale di Monigo while Aironi, who will be based at Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, will involve various clubs from the Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna regions.

The move to welcome Italian sides comes at the end of a year-long review of the viability of expanding the tournament, the detailed analysis and due diligence undertaken by the sports consultancy arm of Deloittes and focusing on the basis of long term financial capacity to support the teams and commit to the league.

David Jordan, Director of Celtic Rugby, said: "This is another massive step forward for the Magners League and follows the decision to go to a top four Play-Off system to determine our champion team.

"As well as providing more fixtures for the teams already involved this will also bring both a major cash injection into the competition and greater exposure across Europe.

"The implementation of the Plays-Offs and the Magners League Grand Final this season has already seen a marked improvement in the competitiveness of the League and the arrival of two Italian teams will provide another boost to the competition.

"Operationally it will present new challenges, as well as opportunities, but by introducing Italy into the Celtic fold it will also dramatically broaden the appeal of our product.

"It is anticipated that the Italian super clubs will be largely made up of Italian internationals of full, A and under 20 levels, with a sprinkling of top class overseas players set to provide further extra strength and spice to the tournament."
Giancarlo Dondi, President of Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR), said: "I am very pleased that, after months of intense negotiations, an agreement that will see two Italian teams join the Magners League at the start of next season has been reached.

"I would like to thank the Board of Celtic Rugby, in particular President John Hussey and Director David Jordan, for the support given in recent months.
"At the same time, I would like to thank Amerino Zatta, the President of Benetton Treviso, and Silvano Melegari, President of Aironi Rugby, who supported me throughout the negotiation period.

"I am sure that the Magners League will bring benefits to all Italian rugby and will have a positive impact on the competitiveness of our national team."

Aidric

Good news that it's now confirmed. I imagine Connacht will be especially pleased.

Crash

Out of interest, what happens now for HC qualification for the Italians? they dismantled the super 10 pretty much, haven't they? (or at least made it semi-pro).

Podge_irl

Crash wrote: »

Out of interest, what happens now for HC qualification for the Italians? they dismantled the super 10 pretty much, haven't they? (or at least made it semi-pro).

As far as I'm aware these two teams just go straight in.

2040

This is great. I hope the fans fully support their teams and pump a bit of money and passion into the whole thing. Is there any talk of some big Italian names signing for these clubs? Birgamascos, Castro, even Parisse?

buck65

You might find a few of them coming home when they are no longer up to it in the Top 14 or premiership. But maybe in a few years the Italians may be able to keep their best.

justsomebloke

Great news for Rugby, hopefully it will help develop the game a bit more in Italy but not tooo much;)

"I am sure that the Magners League will bring benefits to all Italian rugby and will have a positive impact on the competitiveness of our national team."

Im sure it will but what benefit will it give any of the other teams,other than extra fixtures playing in front of 2000 people.

Zzippy

Aidric wrote: »

Good news that it's now confirmed. I imagine Connacht will be especially pleased.

Well we might not finish bottom anymore!

As a fan though, I'm pleased - its an extra 4 games a year, including 2 more home games, and more game time for our players, most (nearly all!) of whom don't get the extra games for Ireland during the 6N and autumn internationals.

Blured

Its a pity they werent able to get the Rome based team off the ground, would have done a lot more for the game in Italy than having two "super" teams based in the traditional strongholds in the North

It is a great step for the Magners league IMO. More exposure for sponsors, greater opportunity for televised rights, more competitive league in the few years if the Italian teams take off. From a personal point of view, means a couple of attractive away fixtures, maybe around ski season

thomond2006

Positives
Italian Rugby will improve exponentially.
Connacht won't finish bottom.
More opportunity for Irish youngsters to get gametime.
Italian results in Europe will eventually improve.

Negatives
May dilute the quality of the League (in the beginning at least).
Both Italian franchises are based in the north of the country.

tommy57

I hate to say it but the magners league this season is a joke. The welsh teams bar the ospreys d'ont seem to pushed.And the same can be said of munster who will be lucky to make the playoffs. Maybe making it harder to qualify for the henicken cup would make it more competitive. It just seems once you finish high enough get into the henicken cup thats all that matters.its not good for fans either going to watch teams that are not putting full effort into matches.I was at northampton v london Irish at christmas and the diffrence in this game to magners league games is fairly noticeble.And probalaly because theres alot more on the line for english teams.

Tim Robbins

tommy57 wrote: »

I hate to say it but the magners league this season is a joke. The welsh teams bar the ospreys d'ont seem to pushed.And the same can be said of munster who will be lucky to make the playoffs. Maybe making it harder to qualify for the henicken cup would make it more competitive. It just seems once you finish high enough get into the henicken cup thats all that matters.its not good for fans either going to watch teams that are not putting full effort into matches.I was at northampton v london Irish at christmas and the diffrence in this game to magners league games is fairly noticeble.And probalaly because theres alot more on the line for english teams.

I'd rather watch a ML game over GP anyday.

tommy57

So would i but thats just what i,ve seen this season.

PhatPiggins

tommy57 wrote: »

I hate to say it but the magners league this season is a joke. The welsh teams bar the ospreys d'ont seem to pushed.And the same can be said of munster who will be lucky to make the playoffs. Maybe making it harder to qualify for the henicken cup would make it more competitive. It just seems once you finish high enough get into the henicken cup thats all that matters.its not good for fans either going to watch teams that are not putting full effort into matches.I was at northampton v london Irish at christmas and the diffrence in this game to magners league games is fairly noticeble.And probalaly because theres alot more on the line for english teams.

I dont see what this has to do with the inclusion of the Italians but if we're going off topic the GP has largely been rubbish this season. If "a lot more on the line" means kick fests with an average of two tries per game I'll take the ML with weakened teams anyday. I know I'm beeing a bit selective and you can name some decent games but 80% of GP I've seen this season has been unwatchable.

Podge_irl

tommy57 wrote: »

I hate to say it but the magners league this season is a joke. The welsh teams bar the ospreys d'ont seem to pushed.And the same can be said of munster who will be lucky to make the playoffs. Maybe making it harder to qualify for the henicken cup would make it more competitive. It just seems once you finish high enough get into the henicken cup thats all that matters.its not good for fans either going to watch teams that are not putting full effort into matches.I was at northampton v london Irish at christmas and the diffrence in this game to magners league games is fairly noticeble.And probalaly because theres alot more on the line for english teams.

Considering Scarlets, Blues and Dragons are all fighting not to be the last Welsh team and thus miss out on HEC qualification you can be assured that the Welsh teams are quite pushed about the competition - they're just not very good at the moment. Likewise, I think you'll find that Munster are less than thrilled about their performances, but it's silly to suggest that just because they aren't doing fantastically well that they're not trying. They lost to the Dragons because they played poorly, not because the didn't care.

tommy57

I,m not saying they d'ont care ,i,m just saying it needs to be more compatitive. some games this season have been brutal and adding italian teams will make no diffrence to the standard of the league. i hope it does as been a leinster fan i want to see a stronger league.

fitz

Great news, long past time the Italians were brought in.

thomond2006

tommy57 wrote: »

I,m not saying they d'ont care ,i,m just saying it needs to be more compatitive. some games this season have been brutal and adding italian teams will make no diffrence to the standard of the league. i hope it does as been a leinster fan i want to see a stronger league.

Seen the Guinness Premiership this season?

Podge_irl

tommy57 wrote: »

I,m not saying they d'ont care ,i,m just saying it needs to be more compatitive. some games this season have been brutal and adding italian teams will make no diffrence to the standard of the league. i hope it does as been a leinster fan i want to see a stronger league.

Define more competitive? The league is quite close this year and there are 7/8 teams challenging for the play-off spots and only Connacht don't have something to be playing for at the moment. How do you define the standard of the league? There are brutal games in every competition, especially over winter. The T14 has some of the most miserable games imaginable.

The Italians will likely not be great to begin with, but it must be remembered that Treviso beat the T14 champions and ran Northampton awfully close in the HEC this year.

thebaz

great news - i like to see new teams get the right support - its been hard for the Italians competing in the 6 N - this will help them progress

thomond2006

Where are Celtic Rugby going to fit in 4 extra games into the season, especially now with the B&I Cup being played during internationals?

WeeBushy

Yay, trips to Italy next year

Great to have the Italians in, might take them a few years to catch up but a great move all round in the long run.

danthefan

tommy57 wrote: »

I hate to say it but the magners league this season is a joke. The welsh teams bar the ospreys d'ont seem to pushed.And the same can be said of munster who will be lucky to make the playoffs. Maybe making it harder to qualify for the henicken cup would make it more competitive. It just seems once you finish high enough get into the henicken cup thats all that matters.its not good for fans either going to watch teams that are not putting full effort into matches.I was at northampton v london Irish at christmas and the diffrence in this game to magners league games is fairly noticeble.And probalaly because theres alot more on the line for english teams.

Dragons and Scarlets have definitely been pushed, it's just neither are very good and Scarlets have been savaged by injuries this season. If you compare a top of the table game like Northampton v LI obviously it'll look better than Scarlets v Connacht.

Stev_o

thomond2006 wrote: »

Where are Celtic Rugby going to fit in 4 extra games into the season, especially now with the B&I Cup being played during internationals?

Well for a start we can use the B&I Cup the way it was supposed to be used and put forward academy players fit to play at that level plus any players floating in the AIL who are currently waiting for the Province to get them into the main squad.

They ll play through the 6N im presuming which form a Irish perspective will add depth to our national squad (hopefully) and give any players back from injury meaningful game time rather then being stuck playing AIL.

treacy52

Delighted to see this eventually come about. Hopefully the Italian teams will be able to move quickly and sign up sufficient quality players for the coming season. It will be difficult though with a relatively short time period to do this. If they can gradually manage to get all/most of their national players back to play for the clubs it will be a big advantage for them going forward.

I wonder will many young/fringe Irish lads be approached to go over to the new teams? There's certainly plently of quality young players being produced in this country and there simply isn't enough game time available for many of them with the provinces here. Could be a great opportunity for them to seek a different avenue into the professional game.

thirdmantackle

now to start looking at getting one Spanish team into the competition in 3/4 years.
would be great to see more Mediterranean weather teams...

ki

treacy52 wrote: »

Delighted to see this eventually come about. Hopefully the Italian teams will be able to move quickly and sign up sufficient quality players for the coming season. It will be difficult though with a relatively short time period to do this. If they can gradually manage to get all/most of their national players back to play for the clubs it will be a big advantage for them going forward.

I wonder will many young/fringe Irish lads be approached to go over to the new teams? There's certainly plently of quality young players being produced in this country and there simply isn't enough game time available for many of them with the provinces here. Could be a great opportunity for them to seek a different avenue into the professional game.

I agree with the first part,
but there is loads of game time in the ML and ACC availible to young irish palyers if the want ot move West.

Sorry to go a little off topic.

The next step is to setup a Division 2?

treacy52

ki wrote: »

I agree with the first part,
but there is loads of game time in the ML and ACC availible to young irish palyers if the want ot move West.

Sorry to go a little off topic.

I was going to include that in my point as well actually but thought it might divert from the main topic of the Italian teams.

There certainly is an opportunity for many young players with Connacht, but that isn't being fully utilised for a myriad of reasons and it's probably best left for a different discussion.

My point was that with two new squads to be assembled in the coming months they will be looking to add players of sufficient quality to at least compete in the Magners as a starter. Once they have garnered all of the suitable Italian players that they can, the new clubs might look to add some young/fringe players from other current squads that would add something to their team. There are plenty of these within the provinces at the moment. Whether they could be attracted to move might be difficult though, just as Connacht have found over the last few years.

jordainius

Are Scotland ever going to revive the Borders or are they gone forever? What about their other region- Caledonia?

Risteard

jordainius wrote: »

Are Scotland ever going to revive the Borders or are they gone forever? What about their other region- Caledonia?

Wouldn't say so. SRU are a bit strapped for cash so probably couldn't afford reviving the Borders, especially considering the poor attendances that Scottish teams get.

anonymous_joe

jordainius wrote: »

Are Scotland ever going to revive the Borders or are they gone forever? What about their other region- Caledonia?

Can't afford to.

The Borders was historically Scotland's rugby 'heartland.' Think Munster to Embra's Ulster/Leinster.

The problem is, without big population centres, there would never be a huge income. And the SRU bankrupted themselves by developing Murrayfield at the same time as professionalism came in.

The Caledonian Reds (?) were in the early Heineken Cup too I think. Disbanded for cost reasons as well.