Andrew Forrest’s hopes of launching the Indo Pacific Rugby Championship in 2019 have hit a roadblock, with Rugby Australia still refusing to give the competition its permanent endorsement.
Forrest’s team, which includes former Western Force skipper Matt Hodgson, has been in negotiations with the governing body for months.
The IPRC needs to be endorsed by RA before it can be approved by World Rugby.
The six-team competition hopes to attract some of the world’s best players, including a host of Australians plying their trade overseas, but they would only then be able to play for the Wallabies again in the event of RA’s full endorsement.
However, given the IPRC will run at the same time as Super Rugby, RA has demanded more control over the new competition and is apparently only willing to offer temporary endorsement.
That’s a situation Forrest’s team simply can’t accept given the amount of money they are prepared to pump in.
A Rugby Community event in Perth was planned for December 10 with certain announcements expected but has been postponed because of the breakdown in negotiations.
Forrest’s team will meet with RA’s working party in Sydney next week hoping for some sort of agreement.
“We were disappointed with the terms they presented to us,” Hodgson said.
“It just wasn’t commercially viable.
“They definitely want a lot of control. There are some things that are big stumbling blocks for us, especially around the terms and the length of temporary endorsement.
“We’re looking to go back to them and talk through our thoughts and hopefully we can change this to a permanent endorsement. That’s probably a non negotiable for us.”
RA has copped widespread criticism for axing Western Force from Super Rugby.
A subsequent Senate inquiry revealed some potentially dodgy dealings by RA in helping Melbourne Rebels find a way to avoid the chop.
WA Liberal Linda Reynolds has called on corporate watchdog ASIC to investigate the scenario.
Earlier this week, Hodgson wrote a Facebook post criticising RA for its demands regarding the IPRC.
“It remains obvious to us after three months of continuous negotiations that Rugby Australia doesn’t have the best interest of the Western Australian rugby community at heart,” he said.
“Rugby Australia’s demands include money to support East coast based programs rather than supporting the WA community, even as they are crippling our local rugby infrastructure.
“We will not be sending any more money over east, our money will remain for our people and to grow our game in Western Australia.
“The current Rugby Australia position is so uncommercial and unreasonable that it ensures the failure of the IPRC before it even starts.”
EGC
Guest
Slight double standards here. We have Forrest's team who are making a claim that, yes, could be regarded as emotive. BUT we are talking about a response to a sport's governing body that has shown itself to be without integrity or credibility. The likelihood that they are trying to carpetbag and gouge monies from the Forrest offering is highly likely..... and using official recognition as their trump card. On the other hand, if Forrest was worth the bellows of his promises, he would just give REA the middle finger and start a "rebel" competition. My view as a totally dispirited ex Western Force supporter is that they can all go and hang - no sympathy or empathy if REA fades into insignificance and the sport plummets into a hole of its own making. Until a truly National approach is taken, there is no room in this country for the current REA structure and competitions.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
Umm, I think we might have it wrong here: Who do you think pitched the idea of reducing the comp to 15? Remember SANZAAR is a collective and it would have take SAR and the ARU to push the proposal through the organization. The Veto Argument is fools gold, when you realise the ARU asked for and got exactly what they were after
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
And this is most likely the problem, He won't know where is money is going either. Sounds like the ARU have caught on to the Imperium scam for unrestricted finances and are trying it on someone else.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
The IRB have Green lit and are even actively encouraging the competition to break into the market. But have left the details with the ARU. Why should the ARU be a stakeholder in this business at all? Are they worried that The players returning from overseas will get Wallabies spots ahead of their SR darlings? Are they worried that people will dump their Fox subscriptions, electing to watch the other comp. It is implied through ARU actions that there is no-one in WA watching or playing Rugby anyway, so it should have little or no impact. Roger Daltry speaking Pete Townsend's words: WTF,RU? Petty extortion.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well we don't actually know what Forrest is being asked to fund.
piru
Roar Rookie
It's not going to happen, and I'm not sure it really should. Ideally we'd have a national body who recognised the country doesn't end at the great dividing range.
piru
Roar Rookie
You could buy 30 million Rebelses for that
piru
Roar Rookie
So why is Forrest being asked to fund eastern states development?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Sorry to not comply with your semantics. He holds office with the ARU. Either way, the ARU was the subject. Not Cameron Clyne.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I heard something like $30M. May be wrong though.
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
DeClyne is not an "employee". He is the Chairman of the Board.
Train Without A Station
Guest
The ARU was the subject of the enquiry. Not any individual enployees.
AndyS
Guest
I remember seeing it mentioned that they kicked in some money to offset the additional costs, but don't recall anything said about the J Sports broadcast deal. If it were significant, I would have expected much to be made of it when the accusations were flying about favouring them over an Australian team...it would be the immediate stopper to all questions about their involvement, but has never been mentioned. The SMH certainly attributed the huge improvement in the deal to "...a large input from Britain's BSkyB for broadcast rights to Super Rugby as well as a stronger US dollar - the currency in which the deals were done". No reason both of those might not also have been true with even an unchanged format.
Train Without A Station
Guest
Not meeting your legal obligations (providing the Rebels) and leaving yourself open to legal action is not good management either. The only chance that the current admin had to remove the Rebels without legal recourse was at the end of 2015. But at the time it was very likely that it would have cost them $11M in TV revenue annually in the future. It’s certainly not good management to forgo greater revenue than the financial liability you’ll be able to remove.
Bakkies
Guest
So what was your mate doing in Canberra two months ago?
Bakkies
Guest
Good management is not throwing good money after bad particularly towards the so called privately owned Rebels.
Train Without A Station
Guest
Most of the money spent on the Rebels was 2016 or later?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Didn't Japan supposedly kick in a huge amount?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
What does the NZRU spend? How exactly will money be saved? Or are you just assuming with no idea where (which I know you are). RA will never be run for the same cost as the NZRU. Firstly salaries are 30% higher in Australia. Secondly, Australia has more competition to recruit people in all positions due to the AFL, NRL, A-League and Cricket. As a result RA would always have to compete for people. Saving money takes more insight then throwing around the term "good management" champ.
AndyS
Guest
We will never know, as I'm sure they would never say even assuming they ever asked. But given that the increase was tied to a bidding war in Europe, they might well have got something similar with minimal change and significantly less increase in costs. It is even a little apposite that they would so significantly change the thing that had generated so much interest in the first place - I doubt it was Japan, Argentina and Port Elizabeth that suddenly had the Europeans clamouring to throw money in the ring...