Toulon owner keen to bring Top 14 side to Aviva Premiership

Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal says he is "serious" in his desire to take his club into the Aviva Premiership.

The outspoken Boudjellal told L'Equipe that his club's Premiership presence would offer "a huge added value".

A Premiership Rugby spokesman confirmed that a letter was received via email from the French club on Wednesday night.

"It is a bit early for us to make a formal response," the spokesman said. "But we will be doing so in due course. It does show the appeal of Premiership rugby."

Boudjellal has had an ongoing and often bitter battle with organisers of the Top 14 - France's premier domestic competition - about matters such as the salary cap.

The three-time European champions' expensively-assembled squad is packed with world stars including Bryan Habana, Matt Giteau, Leigh Halfpenny, Quade Cooper, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and Duane Vermeulen.

England superstar Jonny Wilkinson, meanwhile, inspired them to a first European title in 2013, a trophy they retained the following season and again in 2015.

Victory over Bath at the Recreation Ground on Saturday should secure a Champions Cup quarter-final place and keep them on course for an unprecedented fourth successive European crown.

Speaking on what will be widely viewed as an audacious and improbable move, Boudjellal said: "I wrote for a contact.

"If this is not possible the next season, maybe the one after that. For them [the English], besides a big first, it would be a huge added value. And I'm serious in my approach.

"After winning the European Cup [2013, 2014 and 2015] if I can become the first French club in the history of the English championship, you don't think I'd do it?

"Rugby's financial future is in England rather than in France, given the way the two leagues are managed. The English make good decisions."