Logged on to the ERC website during the week - nice slogan. 'Driving European Rugby Forward.' Really. Then there was an ad - a picture of Trevor Halstead running into Serge Betsen - the caption?

"Who isn't looking forward to the Heineken Cup final?" The French evidently. Lastly, we have the ERC mission statement. To realise the potential of European Club Rugby by pushing back boundaries, connecting stakeholders and creating matches of unique drama. The marketing people got the last bit right.

It remains to be seen whether the ERC is a frustrated organ that sits in shaking frustration as third parties acting on their own initiative put their jewel of a competition in serious danger. Their statement in response to Serge Blanco's announcement that the French clubs would boycott next season's Heineken Cup was remarkably dead pan given that it is incumbent upon them to resolve a matter which ultimately is unresolvable.

It is a matter of regret that Blanco, one of the greatest players of all time, should choose to lead French clubs out of the competition. I was in conversation with some members of the French press when the news broke. I was looking for an explanation. They replied that the French were looking for a greater dividend from the competition. They wanted to participate in a European Cup which was not run by the ERC. They wanted to get their own sponsors which they felt they could organise a better financial deal on. They also reckoned they could cut a better television deal. They did not trust an IRB/ERC body based in Dublin, staffed by Paddys and perceived by them as protecting Irish interests, to the detriment of the French.

Fair enough, I thought.

Then I read Blanco's statement. It did not make sense to me. He said that he was concerned that the RFU had reneged on its pledge to split its shareholding in European Rugby Ltd with the Premiership clubs in England. "Had they not done so, we would have signed the new agreement for the future of the Heineken Cup, " the statement reads.

The French clubs have already received 50% of the ERC shareholding from the FFR. Why is he so concerned about the uncertainty? Since when do the French care what the English clubs are doing?

The English clubs are now taking legal advice to see if they can pull out of the competition. Bloody marvellous.

Conspiracy peut être?

The IRB are fully responsible for this mess. The cackhanded way in which they introduced professionalism has now come home to roost.

The SANZA sides are laughing. Their union affiliated sides have their season, structure and schedules in order. No provisions were ever made to do the same in England and France. The sheer complexity of the issue would make it impossible in France but the RFU had time to get their structures right. They sat on their hands. The sugar daddies came in and now the only way forward is to buy these bastards out at somewhere in the region of £15m-£20m per club. That will never happen and so we have these continuous spats when the clubs go looking for more money and greater power. When this particular spat ends it will be followed by another in two years' time.

Who does Blanco represent? He represents the shareholders' interests in the 14 French clubs. Were the players consulted - of course they weren't. If they were asked, 100% of them would vote to still play in the Heineken Cup. Rugby supporters have become engrossed in this competition. They will not countenance this type of messing.

This dispute will be settled. There will be French participation in the Heineken Cup next year. There will be a compromise. The motley concoction of town hall politicians, rugby power brokers, television moguls and sugar daddies will eventually cobble something together, but not before a few more twists and long-running turns. The entire group have disgraced themselves again and reconfirmed the players and supporters' notions of them as haggling buffoons and ditherers who couldn't give a toss about the esteem or appeal of this competition. That is dangerous ground and something that will come back and haunt them.