Monday 13 March 2017 12:19, UK
Top 14 giants Racing 92 and Stade Francais have announced plans to merge and form one Parisian club from next season.
The two clubs have won the French championship 20 times between them - Stade's latest title coming in 2015 and Racing's in 2016 - and will now pool their resources, subject to approval from France's Ligue Nationale de Rugby.
The extra place in next season's division will be filled either via a play-off or by offering another promotion spot from the second-tier ProD2.
"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," Racing announced in a statement.
"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 anchoring, 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."
Racing, who reached the final of last season's Champions Cup, currently sit eighth in the Top 14 table while Stade are 11th.
