Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal wants his club to join Premiership

Pen pal: Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has written to the Aviva Premiership
(BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty Images)
Julian Bennetts21 January 2016

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has written to the Aviva Premiership asking if his side can make a sensational switch to playing in England.

Premiership chiefs are refusing to rule out allowing the triple European champions to join the English top flight after Boudjellal wrote to them on Tuesday.

A Premiership spokesman said: “I can confirm we have received a letter, however, it is too early to make a formal response.

“We need some time to consider it and will respond in due course.However, this letter does show the appeal of Aviva Premiership Rugby.”

Boudjellal is in dispute with the LNR (the French league) and has told L’Equipe that he believes English rugby is the future and he would like his side to be a part of it.

Such a move is extremely unlikely with both the RFU and their French counterparts having to agree to the move even if the Premiership votes for it.

Boudjellal says he is deadly serious. “This is anything but a provocation,” he told L’Equipe.

“The economic future of rugby is in England rather than France, given the way the two leagues are run. The English take the right decisions.

“Between Rene Fontes [the former President of Clermont Auvergne] and Bruce Craig [the Bath owner], I have chosen my camp.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in