We didn’t see this coming.
Reports emerging from France this morning have confirmed that Racing 92 and Stade Francais will be merged into one club.
Presidents of the respective clubs, Jacky Lorenzetti and Thomas Savare, are due to announce these unexpected plans this afternoon.
The two clubs will form a single entity and will operate as one club from next season onwards.
Plus forts ensemble ! Communiqué du @racing92 : https://t.co/vVLZ3lcwL1 pic.twitter.com/pz1bQfqdVE
— Racing 92 (@racing92) March 13, 2017
This means, that there will be an extra space in the Top 14 which could possibly mean that there will be a playoff between the team that finished 13th and the team that loses the Pro D2 final.
It remains to be seen what this means for the respective playing and coaching staff of both clubs, including that of former Munster and Ireland international, Ronan O’Gara.
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This will likely change the landscape of European rugby with this new ‘superclub’ likely to have even more financial strength.
Racing 92 have released the following statement on their website.
Winners of the first two championships in the history of French rugby in 1892 and 1893, Racing 92 and Stade Français Paris also won the Brennus Shield in the last two seasons.
These two flagship clubs of Paris and the Hauts de Seine, beyond the sporting rivalry they have enjoyed, have many other similarities: a strong local and regional anchorage, a historic educational mission, ancestral ties with The Olympic movement or an inextinguishable will to progress in all areas.
It is on the basis of these principles that the two clubs lay the foundations for a merger project by pooling their resources to better cope with the challenges of performance and education.
This association, effective from next season, must give birth to a new club that will preserve the roots of Racing 92 as those of the Stade Français Paris while multiplying the means put at the service of youth and French rugby.
Consolidated by its dual culture, by the fierce determination of its two presidents and its increased audience in a population pool unmatched in France, this new club has a long-term commitment to build a true reference day after day .
Huge news.
