Bath Rugby owner and executive chairman Bruce Craig says there was never a "realistic expectation" that bosses of European rugby's new competitions could secure five main sponsors in time for next week's start.
Earlier this week, Heineken were announced as the first of five planned principal partners for the new-look Champions Cup which gets under way on Friday week.
Bath chairman Craig also sits on the executive committee of governing body European Professional Club Rugby and backed bosses to secure sponsorship from multi-national companies new to rugby, who will "make a significant investment".
Although it could take until next season to finalise sponsorship deals Craig said rugby has "taken a step forward" in the two-year redrawing of continental action.
Craig told PA: "It's no surprise to us that it's taking this time.
"It's obvious that to put five sponsors together in four months, that's not a realistic expectation.
"You could under-sell potentially, and we want to make sure we've got the right partners.
"This is a medium to long-term project. If it's too easy, if all of a sudden in four months we had five sponsors and it was all done it would be maybe too easy.
"I think from a competition point of view you really need 12 to 18 months to put a proper sponsorship deal together – that's the cycle. Because when you're going into place with big companies, they've got to put forward their budgets and get them signed off.
"You're going into a position dealing with multi-national companies, they need to be signed off not only in this country but it could be a board in a different country too.
"So it's a long process with a lot of sign-off, for some chunky amounts of money.
"In terms of actually doing it seriously, the companies need to make a significant investment into rugby. And what we want is new partners and new people coming into rugby, and not just the same partners."
Two years of political wrangling yielded the end of the Heineken Cup and the new European era.
Craig defended the drive of English and French clubs to secure new television rights deals that will boost tournament revenues by at least 60 per cent and said those new broadcasting deals will prove "fundamental to the sustainability of club rugby".
"I think there has been a lot of turmoil, a lot that has happened over the last two years where we've positioned the club competition in a place where it should really be," said Craig.
"The whole thing now, rugby is in a better place. We're in a place on the pitch when we start going into next week where the rugby's going to take over and people will see right from the beginning that probably rugby has taken a step forward.
"From going from 24 down to 20 teams, the pools are very, very strong. And I think the rugby will do the talking now.
"To generate the maximum amount of revenue through the club game and through the European competition, as well as the domestic competition, is fundamental to the sustainability and the development of club rugby.
"The rugby on the pitch sells what you're doing. The politics, what's gone on in the past, that's for the boardroom, for the people who've actually got a certain vision of how they see rugby moving forward.
"Now the rugby should sell itself, and I'm absolutely sure it will going into the new competition."
