Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic traveling to New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere remains the biggest stumbling block, and according to Roux, this could be the case until May next year.

Roux said that he is not worried about the South African teams being booted out of the Super Rugby.

“In terms of SANZAAR and the joint venture agreement, there is a very legal agreement in place.

“You've got to act within that agreement. If you act outside of that legal agreement, you are in breach of that the joint venture and you make yourself liable to legal action from the other parties.

“We've always dealt with everything in a very constructive fashion within SANZAAR, and we are still having discussions on what the year 2021 will look like, and what it will look like beyond that.”

There are suggestions the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers will compete in the and expanded European competition at the expense of the Cheetahs and the Kings.

Roux told OFM Sport that it is still early days and that the Free State will have a big say in the Cheetahs future in international competitions.

“We are living in a time where we are obviously looking at our structures and we are making decisions on where we are going to play internationally.

“Whether that is SANZAAR, whether that is an expanded European competition or even plan C which is a more eastern-western route that we can possibly follow.

“Once we've actually negotiated on how that will work, only then decisions will follow on who participates where and in what format.

“Constitutionally that is the decision of the general council. The executive cannot unilaterally make a decision on the participation of the Cheetahs, the Kings, the Bulls, the Lions, the Sharks and the Stormers. That is by constitution a decision that the general council must make.

“The general council basically makes three decisions every year - who participates in the Currie Cup, who participates in the international competitions, and they approve the budget.

“The Free State will have a very big say in who plays internationally, so will the Kings, and so will the other twelve teams that are part of the general council.

“We can come up with the competition formats, we can come up with the options, we can come up with the commercials and the plans going forward, and those elements have to be approved by the general council.”

In 2017 the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings along with the Western Force from Australia were kicked out of the Super Rugby as the competition reduced the amount of teams from 18 to 15.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport