English rugby clubs have made their latest bid to seize control of the European game by announcing a deal that they claim will give BT the rights to show matches from both their Premiership and cross-border competition.

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, bearing the provocative title "New Deal Strengthens European Rugby", English Premiership officials said they had signed a deal with BT worth up to £152m for a range of exclusive live rights over a four-year period.

As well as providing exclusive live rights to matches in their competition, they added that "BT will also have exclusive live broadcast rights to matches played by Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs in any future European competitions from 2014-15 for three years."

On the face of it, that would seem a curious claim since such rights belong to ERC Ltd, a company comprised of representatives from all six countries that participate in the Heineken Cup.

However, it had to be taken in the context of the English clubs' posturing regarding the future of the Heineken Cup and their bid to change its structure fuelled by their resentment of Celtic domination of the tournament. Far from strengthening European rugby, then, it looks like a blatant piece of politicking aimed at undermining ERC.

That impression was reinforced little more than an hour later when first ERC announced a deal of its own which declared that it had agreed to extend Sky TV's rights to broadcast Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cup matches played in the UK until season 2017/18.

A few minutes after that, ERC put out another statement questioning English Premiership's "purported deal to sell the UK broadcast rights to European club rugby tournaments".

"While awaiting further information regarding Premiership Rugby's proposed agreement with BT, the ERC Board, which met in Dublin today, believes that any such agreement would be in breach both of IRB regulations and of a mandate from the ERC Board itself," it continued.

This behaviour looks very much like a return to the sort of bullying tactics employed by English rugby officialdom in the past.

The most infamous examples of that resulted in a boycott of the Heineken Cup by English clubs in 1998/99, followed by a rather embarrassing climb-down the following year, while Celtic solidarity in a similar dispute at international level almost led to England being ejected from the then Five Nations Championship that same season.

Once again the motivation is financial with English Premiership clubs believing they can use the power of London-based institutions to improve their bargaining power.

With that in mind, their choice of partner at the end of what Westminster politicians have repeatedly told us has been a great British summer of sport seems particularly ironic since the involvement of the company formerly known as British Telecom in supporting this power grab plays to the view widely held in Celtic countries that many within the English establishment see the words England and Britain as synonyms.