After Leinster's 30-15 victory over Ulster in the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 last week, supporters were left in the dark over the details of the next round.
The EPCR didn't release any details on fixtures for this weekend's games until Sunday evening, leaving fans from all of the clubs left in the final eight of the competition, with little time to prepare ahead of the quarterfinal stage.
For Leinster and Leicester fans, they've had less than five days to find tickets, accommodation and organise travel to the Aviva Stadium.
Last year's runners up from the competition, Leinster, also announced that the Aviva will only be filled to half capacity with the upper tiers closed as a result of the short notice.
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Ferris slams the scheduling of the Heineken Champions Cup
Speaking to us in one of our regular chats in association with Ladbrokes, Stephen Ferris also questioned the scheduling of the Heineken Champions Cup fixtures.
We were told on air not to mention the (Leinster) fixture on the Friday. We were like "Why?" and then they were like "European Rugby want to announce it themselves."
So I was like, people who are watching Leinster here don't actually know what day the game is going to be on next week. You'd think they'd have this in the calendar, like 'If Leinster win they play on the Friday, it's a 6pm kick-off. If Ulster win they're away' just so people can get travel arrangements, babysitters, book restaurants, go to pubs.
Like seriously, come on man.
This isn't 15, 20 years ago. We've got to wake up and you know really look after our fans and our clubs and be able to give them time and the logistics of things don't just happen overnight.
They take a few days especially with travelling teams coming from South Africa or teams having to get to South Africa, like it's baffling, it really is.
A much needed change of format to European Rugby's biggest club competition has been needed for years and after changing from the initial group stage games this year, much is still yet to be fixed to get the most out of the tournament.
In order to go back to the most recent group stage format, an extra weekend of games will be needed and Stephen Ferris seems to think that buy in from domestic leagues will be difficult due to the large amount of games that clubs play already.
Next year there still needs to be a free weekend to make that happen (go back to group stage format). I'd say in the URC they'd be happy to do it, Gallagher Premiership, maybe not so much and then Top 14, absolutely not.
The last thing that they want is another fixture in their calendar so it'll be interesting to see how they work it out.
With European rugby currently outshining the Southern Hemisphere at international level, scheduling and planning of Europe's biggest tournament has to be sorted quickly by the EPCR.
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