Comparing Stade-Racing merger to Barcelona-Real Madrid joining pretentious - Lorenzetti

Likening Racing 92’s controversial merger with Paris rivals Stade Francais to fierce foes Barcelona joining with Real Madrid would be “pretentious”, insists Racing chairman Jacky Lorenzetti.

The French giants, who have 20 domestic titles between them, stunned the rugby world by announcing their decision to amalgamate into one team in Top 14 next season.

It is a bombshell that has been met with shock and it remains to be seen what the future holds for the squads of both teams as the two giants become one.

Stade lock Pascal Pape tweeted to say “my sadness is so great”, while team-mate Hugo Bonneval merely posted “13/03/2017: END.”

Paul Gabrillagues expressed his shock on Facebook writing: “It’s not a merger, it’s the acquisition of Stade Francais by Racing.

“This is the death of our club.”

However, Lorenzetti insists that the decision will ultimately be the right one for rugby in Paris and was quick to dismiss the move is on the same level as the idea of Spanish football rivals Barca and Madrid joining together in LaLiga.

“The starting idea is positive,” he told a news conference on Monday. “It is to think that we will do much better together.

“I’m not going to do any comparison with Barca or Real, it would be far too pretentious.

“But we’ll have two clubs merging, we have the youngsters in our academies, it is very ambitious.

“You can see things positively instead of saying ‘one club is disappearing’, no it will be an amazing club. 

“If we don’t make any mistakes, it will be an amazing club and we strongly believe in it with [Stade president] Thomas Savare.”