Top 14 Owner Claims His Club Will Lose Millions If Games Are Played Behind Closed Doors

The Coronavirus could end up costing Top 14 clubs millions of Euros according to Toulouse owner Didier Lacroix.

Rugby games across Europe and Japan have already been impacted by the virus with the most notable fixturing in France being the Six Nations clash between France and Ireland.

It is rumoured that the fixture will be rescheduled to the end of October. However, the PROD2 and TOP 14 don't have time on their side to reschedule those fixtures with the competition set to conclude in early June. 

A conference call is scheduled today with club presidents to consider solutions to the problem set by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, prohibiting gatherings of more than 1,000 people,

This could mean that three rounds of the PROD2 and TOP14 club be played behind closed doors or crowds of 1,000 spectators or less. The likes of Toulouse, Clermont and Racing 92 must also include European quarter-finals into that equation.

According to French news outlet La Dépêche , Toulouse's clash with Ulster was sold out with the club now set to suffer a 750 000 Euro shortfall if the game is played behind closed doors.

Toulouse president Didier Lacroix told La Dépêche that the club could lose 3 million euros.

“Financially, we will have to find a solution. We can not afford to have a loss of activities that we figure overall, if we go until the end of the season, three million euros. If we lose three million euros, we will have real difficulties. We are talking about very large amounts, therefore, once again, we must be reasonable, agile and reactive. We will adapt to the constraints that are proposed to us, we will not look at our little navel. And we will try to look at everything that presents itself to us as a solution. ”