World Rugby's Nations League proposal set to be knocked back

Just to add some spice to this particular mix: From the Telegraph news paper full article below, IMG has also made a bid it seems The Six Nations is to receive details on Friday of a third multi-million pound offer as bidding for the game’s prize assets intensifies, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. World Rugby launched its own salvage mission in Dublin on Thursday, unveiling a £5 billion Nations Championship project that will guarantee at least a £10 million uplift per year to each of the 12 competing unions over the next dozen years, with the hope that it will head off a rival £500 million bid by CVC to the Six Nations. There is little doubt that there is a scramble to secure rugby’s future, with World Rugby hoping that it has put enough on the table to persuade the sceptical Six Nations’ unions that it has the commercial clout to compete with other interested parties. However, The Telegraph understands that the Six Nations is to be presented with a £1.75 billion investment proposal by the International Management Group, one of the world’s leading sports agencies, which will look to be pliable in its relationship with the European governing body so that it might have a global reach, too. A competition format is yet to be discussed, although it will include all the world’s leading nations. The money matches other bidders. A Six Nations meeting on Sunday will consider the detail of the IMG proposal, known as Project Light, which has been 18 months in gestation. There had been fears that CVC’s involvement, offering instant riches for a 30 per cent equity stake, would lead to the collapse of the global initiative proposed by World Rugby. There are still significant stumbling blocks to the World Rugby deal being voted through at a council meeting in Dublin on May 22, promotion and relegation being one of them, relationships with the English and French clubs another. The Six Nations remains opposed to promotion and relegation, with Scotland and Ireland both sceptical. England retain “an open mind”. World Rugby acknowledges that there are “reservations and concerns … and it remains a discussion point to find a pathway solution”. The mood was upbeat, however, as the 40 representatives broke after a three-hour meeting, with one saying it was “a Lazarus moment”, while another spoke of the project getting “a kiss of life”. The IMG proposal would seek to keep the equity in the sport as opposed to the CVC approach. Agustin Pichot, the World Rugby vice-chairman, said that it would be “madness” to go with a private equity group, as an element of control would be lost. There is a lot of due diligence to be done. Certainly there is a diplomatic mission to be mounted concerning the English and French clubs, who have threatened legal action over a perceived encroachment on their schedules. World Rugby has partially recognised that complaint by ditching the proposed semi-final slot, thus also reducing the player workload. The players’ unions still have concerns over the amount of travel involved. Unions will want assurances that the £5 billion reserve of funding that has been guaranteed by Swiss-based Infront Sports, headed up by Sepp Blatter’s nephew, Philippe Blatter, will provide a smooth release of money into the game. “Our financial model is [now] clearer and more robust,” said Brett Gosper, the World Rugby chief executive. The promotion and relegation issue will not be easily resolved, although under World Rugby’s Nations Championship it would probably not come into operation until 2026. At that point, there would be a provision for the bottom side in the Six Nations to have a play-off against the aspiring team, such as Georgia or Romania. The same would apply in the southern hemisphere. Given that there would be no competition at all in a World Cup year and no relegation or promotion in a Lions year, there would only be three such play-off scenarios in any 12-year cycle. That match would take place on the same weekend as the final, which could see two teams from the same hemisphere contesting the title. The top two points-scorers in the 12-team competition, with each country playing each other once across a calendar year, will make up the finalists. The southern hemisphere welcomed the World Rugby project. “This is now the next step change that World Rugby needs to look at to make sure it remains relevant,” said Raelene Castle, the Australia chief executive, while her South African counterpart, Jurie Roux, said: “Change in rugby is needed and this is an opportunity for change.” World Rugby has made its play. “The other propositions under consideration are for entities of the world game,” Gosper said. “This is the only offer on the table where there is a world game solution. We would like to know by May 22 whether it is a deal or no deal, in or out, for all concerned.”

All I’m saying is this shows the limit of his generosity. If anything I imagine he’d be willing to spend more due to spite.

We wouldn’t be even hearing of GRR if he and RA had worked together to maintain the Force and build the NRC. We’ve gone through this topic before and I don’t expect us to agree. I’ll restate that I think you’ve consistently mischaracterised what Twiggy is doing now vs what could have been acheived with him inside the Aussie rugby tent. I met Samisoni Viriviri who will be playing for the South China Tigers in GRR last weekend. Tom Varndell was floating around as well but I didn’t get a chance to say g’day to him. Isn’t the full fledged tournament but we will have GRR rugby in HK this year.

I don't. It's professional sport. If we were talking about a Top 4 team absolutely. But we are talking about a fringe team that may qualify on merit in last place in the North but doesn't have the history.

Add in Ireland, Wales and Scotland too.

They are in England and France. Outside there, more so the national teams.

Fingers crossed! I was anti the WL when I heard about it but think it sounds the way forward now. Would like to hear more about how BIL tours are catered for

This is worth £120m to them. And that apparently doesn’t include other equities that arise from the deal. And this could be all about bargaining. To up the share. Another aspect is that while the CVC deal is for 30% the Infront offer isn’t looking for an ownership stake. Which means they will still own the structure.

Unfortunately it only takes one hold out within the Tier 1 nations to stop this and the 6N's unions have 100m GBP each on the table from CVC. CVC already own 27% of the Gallagher English Premiership and their offer is to buy 30% of the 6N, I can't see them approving the RL if that deal goes ahead. As well as the additional cash, saying no to the WL removes the threat of relegation from the 6N's. That is both carrot and stick attached to the CVC/anti-WL offer. I hope they say no to CVC but I think it is a pretty hard sell.

It was all so easy wasn’t it? We have 2 successful national competitions in Australia that are relevant comparisons. AFL and NRL. Both were based solely in one city until 30 years ago and both today have the majority of teams in one city. Why? Because Australia’s geography meant that until sports were adequate commercial enterprises, a national competition was simply not viable in our country. One end of England to the other is a 5 hour drive. Half the distance Brisbane to Sydney. It didn’t happen because it wasn’t viable for 70 years. And then there’s the fact that the clubs were never viable to base one around. The AFL exists on the back of clubs that were strong enough. That’s that could afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries in the early 80s and earlier.

By the home countries NOT going ahead with the world league it will mean the NH countries get more finance, and get stronger since all the best players will be in their club comps. Thus the NH will beat NZ and SA more with aust not even being a challenge in the least. There would still be the existing june tests and end of year tests between the nh and sh countries. The fans would love it.

Anything is possible but nothing is certain Sheek. Personally, I think there will be some version of a World League relatively soon because the so-called self-interest of (some of) the 6N members can only remain relevant in a broader context. Rugby is not like AFL. Everyone knows its an international game. You might be a diehard Saracens fan for example but your enjoyment of rugby isn't limited to the club. Some part of you wants England (or Wales or whatever) to smash Aust or NZ in a meaningful competition that doesn't only happen once in 4 years. Rugby is a business but its by no means only a business.

Just Rugby? Its how the world is. Self interest is at the heart of just about every crap thing impacting the world atm. The greed that fueled the GFC, the banking royal commision sins, institutional abuse of children, the poor excuse for elected officials. Heck, even pregnant women having to stand on the train while suits sit ignorantly (note, when this happneed to my wife, the only one to stand for her was a scary looking long haired dude, covered in tatts. Never judge a book by its cover) As Khamal would say, "why are people so unkind?"

Self interest: governing international rugby since the 1800s... :mad:

No. Twiggy is a wealthy man. That doesn’t mean he is willing to just dump that wealth into rugby. GRR has not materialised for 2019 because Twiggy isn’t willing to spend too much. It’s not starting because it lacks other investors and broadcasters also willing to put up money. If he was willing to dump $50M into rugby, GRR would be in full swing for 2019. He’s not. Because you don’t get to be extremely wealthy by throwing lots of money away.

You miss my point. Twiggy is a wealthy man. Australian rugby is poor. Australian rugby needs wealthy benefactors, plenty of them, willing to drop oodles of money into rugby they won't miss. Not your oh so technical mumbo jumbo.

The BBC are reporting that both France and Wales are keen alongside SANZAAR and the concept is backed by a £5b ($9.4b AUD) offer over 12 years. From here I can see Fiji and Samoa voting with SANZAAR and Pichot having enough sway in the America’s to bring the bloc with him. A number of Rugby Europe nations will benefit from this so they could be reasonably counted to side with the proposal. There’s a good deal of discontent with the protectionist nature of the 6Ns among many in RE so an opportunity to change that even a little would be too good of an opportunity. That’s a lot of money for these Unions. Especially if the £10m ($18.7m) payment to the participating Unions turns out to be accurate. It also features plans for a Women’s equivalent to kick off after the 2025 WRWC.

Yeah PK, Over 100 years for failing to develop a national comp during the amateur era, will eventually kill Australian rugby as a major sport. We have only ourselves to blame.

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IMO initially the future will be more like soccer. All the very good rugby players will be playing in euro clubs except for young up and comers. The national team will consist of mainly o/s players released from clubs for allowable test windows. There will be no pro rugby domestic scene. Pretty soon after that say a decade no quality players will be produced by australia and it will plummet as a sport and on the intl scene. SA and NZ will fair better since they have strong domestic comps and rugby is not a niche sport there but well entrenched throughout the country.