A fine idea led astray, a twisted story, administrators (?) whose lack of continental conscience is astonishing. The European cups are in danger, No, they are dying.

How far away it all seems, the days when Clermont’s Yellow Army processed from the centre of Dublin to Lansdowne Road in 2012, when Jonny Wilkinson pulled a hundred journalists into the reception rooms of the Paris city hall in 2005 for a Stade Français – Newcastle quarter-final (which he would not play…) that filled the Parc des Princes, when RMC ran debates on the Moscato Show along the lines of “Would you rather win the H Cup or the Top 14,”?

Nostalgia, No, no, an observation.

How did the goose that laid the Heineken-scented eggs, the eponymous sponsor of the happy European years, become nothing more than a fine idea stripped of its feathers, or worse, a memory that has fallen into disuse, questioned even by those most involved in it: the giants of Europe and their players?

Rugby’s European cups are 31 years old, the age of an idea carried to the font by a Great administrator of French, European and world rugby, Marcel Martin, the same man who was a tireless engine-room worker in the creation of the Rugby World Cup (first edition in 1987) and in bringing Italy into the tournament (2000). His legacy has been led astray, with South African teams and formats so convoluted that even a brewer involved in rugby would find them foul-smelling. The reasons for the decline? Multiple, as always.

The Evin law? We went from the Heineken Cup to the H Cup. Covid? More likely. Like a headless chicken, administrators and their suffering money men went looking for solutions. And as so often, the search is for more sources of revenue, for more fixtures, while trying to paper over the historic reference point of the competition.

Was it better before? Well yes! Before, the pools were simple, qualification was clear and the knockout matches were very powerful and hugely followed. Today? The formats have been changed several times, the pools are not balanced, there is less clarity and above all less interest for the public. A painful vox pop among the aficionados this week (try it, you will see): which four French clubs are still in the running?

The Top 14 and the Premiership have also cannibalised the European competition, the French championship above all: don’t lose feathers on the continent when you are fighting to stay in a national top flight that pays so much better. There is also the recession and the suffocation of the other European nations (Wales is sinking, Scotland and Italy are economic dwarfs, England has lost Worcester, Wasps…, what does Ireland weigh in terms of television rights?), which opened the door to today’s great “European” nonsense with South African teams in the continental competition (Imagine the Eurovision song contest with Israel or Australia… ah, but of course…)! Yes indeed, the Celtic league took in two Italian clubs and then South African franchises, and the ERC’s heir (European Rugby Championship) EPCR piled into the breach by setting up its headquarters in Switzerland, that huge rugby country (?).

Today, there is hardly anywhere left but Ireland where people think the former Heineken Cup is a stepping stone between club/provincial rugby and the national team.

In France, as long as 20 years ago, a club fighting for its survival in what was then the Top 16 gave the Challenge Cup a miss by sending a second team. And took a fine for it. The worm is not in the fruit. There is no fruit left. And Marcel Martin is not being respected.

On 7 January 1996, after extra time in Cardiff, Toulouse lifted the first trophy of what was a magnificent idea for the Europe of rugby, and Jean-Philippe Revallier will forever remain the first try-scorer in the history of the competition, against Constanța, Romania. Romania, Europe. Bulls, Stormers, Sharks, Lions, Cheetah… Investec…

BeIn sport remains the broadcaster in France. Happy?

The players themselves have voiced their dismay at how the spirit of the competition has been perverted, and we are not even talking about the medical staffs or the people in charge of corporate social responsibility!

The fine idea has been led astray, sometimes dressed up in the clothes of virtue: developing rugby in Europe. There was the European Shield, open to the Spanish, the Portuguese and second-tier Italians, and there were even improbable matches out towards the Urals (ask UBB…).

It is time for new Marcel Martins to stand up, Europe deserves it so much.