Italian rugby bosses rescue Zebre and save Pro 12 restructure

Over the past weekend Italian club Zebre informed Celtic Rugby Board‚ the organisation that runs the Pro 12‚ that it was unlikely to field a team in the 2017/18 tournament due to financial difficulties‚ which put the tournament structure in jeopardy.

But on Monday night the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) stepped in and said it would fund Zebre to honour its commitments to the Celtic Rugby Board of including two teams in the Pro 12 competition.

The FIR have created a new company to manage the club called ‘Zebre Rugby Club Company’.

A statement from the FIR read: “FIR leaders will meet on Monday 24 July in Parma – together with the new directors – members of staff and players of the franchise to start the operating processes of ‘Zebre Rugby Club’.”

That is good news for the Cheetahs and Southern Kings‚ who are both set to be the newest members of the expanded tournament.

Last week the Celtic Rugby board confirmed they were in talks with SA Rugby about including the two clubs.

Celtic Rugby met with SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux in Dublin to iron out the last details of the contract.

An announcement was set for early this week‚ but Zebre’s position has pushed that back by a few days.

- TimesLIVE