The English Premiership clubs and Welsh regions will wait until the end of the second round of the Six Nations championship before revealing their plans for next season after the 31 January deadline they set for resolution on a six-nation European club tournament came and went.

Premiership Rugby and Regional Rugby Wales have signed a head of agreement and one of their options is an Anglo-Welsh league. The regions have been told that relegation is non-negotiable, but they see the guaranteed income that they would have through the BT Sport television deal would be worth the risk.

The regions would start with a central income of more than £2m, working upwards to £3m by the end of the five-year contract. They receive £2.9m from the tournaments they currently play in, but with no European Cup agreed and with various deals in the RaboDirect Pro12 in a state of flux, and the Italians considering pulling out, that is anything but guaranteed.

Both Premiership Rugby and the regions are angry that the latest instalment of money from European Rugby Cup Ltd, the organisers of the Heineken Cup that the two groups have pledged to have nothing to do with from the end of the season, has been delayed.

It was due last week. ERC's board meets on Wednesday and no money will be released. The regions are due £200,000 each and some of their owners have had to guarantee wages. Their director on the board, Stuart Gallacher, stood down six weeks ago and the regions – having decided the position should lie fallow – are set to appoint someone else.

"We have been given no reason for the delay," said one regional official. "We are being told that there is no reason why ERC should not continue to run the European Cup, but this hardly makes a case for that argument."