ERC has confirmed that the Federation Francaise de Rugby (FFR) has withdrawn its application to host the 2014 Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup finals due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding the availability of the Stade de France.

The Board of ERC will now seek proposals from the other participating nations in the tournaments and will aim to confirm the host city and venues by the end of June.

Dublin 2013 was the third successive season that both the Amlin Challenge Cup and Heineken Cup finals were staged in the same city as a part of European club rugby’s showpiece weekend.

A total of 1,068,878 spectators have passed through the turnstiles at the 18 Heineken Cup finals to date. Since 2003, the venue for the Heineken Cup final has been selected before of the start of the tournament, while from 2005, tickets have been on sale from up to 12 months in advance with the objective of maximising attendances and building ERC’s weekend festival of European club rugby.

Following this week’s pool draws for the 2013/14 Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup tournaments, ERC has now begun the process of confirming the fixtures for the 19th European season which is set to kick-off on the weekend of 10/11/12/13 October 2013.