Toulon in the Premiership: Power politics at heart of French club's plan to join the English league

The chances of the respective national unions agreeing to such a move are zero at best, but the very suggestion could open up a new front in the club-versus-country conflict that has been rumbling away for two decades

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal is at loggerheads with the French league over player bonus payments (AFP/Getty)

Toulon, the three-time European champions whose chances of a fourth successive title go on the line at Bath this weekend, have sparked another round of rugby power politics by signalling their desire to quit the French club scene and join the English Premiership.

The chances of the respective national unions agreeing to such a move are zero at best, but the very suggestion could open up a new front in the club-versus-country conflict that has been rumbling away since the sport turned professional two decades ago.

Mourad Boudjellal, the wildly outspoken Toulon president and financier-in-chief, made an approach to the top-flight English teams on Wednesday night by emailing senior figures at Premiership Rugby.

“I am serious,” said the man whose public statements are not always quite as serious as he likes to make out. “Besides being a big first, there would be huge added value for the clubs in England. If this is not possible next season, maybe the one after that.”

A Premiership spokesman was suitably evasive, saying it was “a bit early for a formal response”, but he did add, opportunistically: “It does show the appeal of our rugby.”

Boudjellal, very much a free market fundamentalist when it comes to the rugby economy, has been at loggerheads with the top brass in the elite Top 14 competition in France over salary cap and other financial arrangements – most notably regulations covering bonus payments to top international players. Such payments are thought to be a big part of union life on the Cote d’Azur.

But his latest extraordinary outburst has more to do with a long-term attempt to tilt the balance of power away from the long-established governing bodies and towards the big-time clubs.

Talk of a move towards a European league is never far from the lips of the more ambitious owners in the northern hemisphere, who are also keen to consolidate their positions by rearranging the global calendar to prevent club and international rugby being played simultaneously.

Bruce Craig, the owner of Bath, is particularly keen on the latter idea. His conversation with Boudjellal this weekend could be very interesting indeed.