Four-time European champions Leinster would be interested in taking part in the proposed Rugby Club World Cup, according to their Head of Rugby Operations, Guy Easterby.
French federation president, Bernard Laporte, who is in line to become the vice-president of World Rugby, has floated the idea of a new competition featuring 20 of the top clubs from across the globe.
The Champions Cup's organisers, the EPCR, said earlier this month that talks had taken place and they would see the World competition as one that would run alongside both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup.
"Leinster would be open to considering all ideas around that," Easterby told Off The Ball during a media conference call. "The PRO14, European Rugby and the IRFU are all potential biting points and it would have to work into a global rugby calendar that is completely aligned.
"They've talked previously about playing the champions of Europe against the Super Rugby champions and that's been mentioned a number of times but the challenges are around the timing of it.
"When you look at rugby league and the champions of Super League against the winners of the Australian NRL, it ends up almost as one team playing their first pre-season game against a team who are already half way through their season already.
"At this point in time it's very difficult to see but we would be very keen to explore all opportunities at this point."
Easterby also admitted that rugby's shutdown and the prospect of games behind closed doors when the action resumes, is likely to have a heavy financial impact on clubs:
“We don’t budget for a home quarter-final but it is very important to us to try and achieve that. Then we have the Munster game which is that annual game in the Aviva which you know is an important part of our financial model.
“It’s a difficult one because filling stadiums is key to running a sustainable business. Rugby isn’t set up like soccer currently where broadcasting revenue is more important than the people coming in.
“As a business we’ve had some success over a period of time that allows us to have a sound financial footing that allows us to ride out a period of time to hopefully come through the other side of this.”
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