Column: So, elite test rugby might be going to Qatar.
Interesting.
I can’t say I’m too enthused. Nothing to do with sportswashing, but we’ll get to that.
When I think of sport in Qatar, I think of English footballer Jordan Henderson.
The then-Liverpool captain was a vocal critic of Qatar – and its human rights record – ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in that country.
A longtime advocate for the Rainbow community, Henderson said he was shocked and appalled by many aspects of Qatari culture and wholeheartedly supported the idea of England captain Harry Kane wearing the ‘One Love’ armband during the tournament, as a gesture of protest.
It never came to that.
FIFA said anyone wearing the armband would be yellow-carded and the players backed down.
Coverage at the time was largely limited to FIFA bullies pushing the players around and then the inevitable talk of corruption etcetera.
None of that was untrue, but it missed the point that most of these blokes are just virtue-signallers and, having huffed and puffed about what they were going to do, they never had any intention of matching their words with actions.
Henderson, by the way, then signed a contract to play for a club in Saudi Arabia.
I mention that, as talk intensifies that the Nations Championship – featuring the All Blacks and Wallabies – could be staged in Qatar.
World Rugby selling its soul by heading to Qatar. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
We’re still a few years away from the inaugural iteration of that tournament, but already I can imagine the wokesters in our player base tying up their rainbow laces and making similarly hollow threats about not supporting a despotic regime.
When I was a kid, All Blacks captain Graham Mourie and centre Bruce Robertson didn’t just say they disapproved of apartheid. They made themselves unavailable for the Springbok tour of 1981.
The difference then was that rugby was amateur. Players could afford to have principles.
We’ll see how many players of the current crop have their silence bought, should the Nations Championship ever get to Qatar.
The fact it could be going there is a disgrace. Again, though, not of the sportwashing kind.
It shows just how desperate and inept our administrators are and how they will stoop to any level to avoid the inconvenient truth that they pay their players and themselves too much money.
Rugby is not a game anymore. It’s a global business that can’t make ends meet, particularly in Australasia.
So we have New Zealand Rugby (NZR) chief executive Mark Robinson regularly waffling on – including in Auckland last week – about growing fan and commercial connections across the world.
I think what Robinson is really saying is the All Blacks are a commodity that’s for sale and NZR isn’t fussy about the identity of the bidders.
(L-R) Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh and New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
The thing about NZR, though, is that it’s insufferably woke, which is partly why this country’s provincial unions are in revolt right now.
Diversity and inclusion is vitally important to NZR as they quietly virtue-signal their way out of business.
But such is the distressed nature of their asset that it appears NZR will even take coin off Qatar, no matter how unpalatable or at odds that might be with their own cultural agenda.
It’s comical really.
In the same way that I don’t want to hear players protesting about potentially playing in Qatar, I actually don’t think the combatants in the Nations Championship will be complicit in sportswashing.
I think sportswashing is hogwash, in the same way tobacco sponsorship of sport once was.
I never picked up a packet of fags because I saw Mal Meninga lifting the Winfield Cup or Viv Richards collecting another Benson & Hedges man of the match award.
Same as I don’t suddenly intend taking a holiday in Saudi Arabia because their Public Investment Fund has pumped money into a variety of sports.
I don’t personally care where the money comes from to fund global sport and use LIV Golf as an example.
The golfing establishment tried to turn it into a moral issue, as if their money was good and the Saudis’ was bad. All it did was make them look like hypocrites.
Booze, fast food, gambling; they’re blue chip, solid gold sponsors. Qatar and Saudi Arabia? Not so much, apparently.
So should a chorus of folk start condemning NZR as morally corrupt for taking the All Blacks to Qatar, I won’t join it.
But I do think our governing bodies should feel embarrassed that they’ve run their game so poorly that this type of investment has become the silver bullet.
How about taking a long, hard look at your business model first.
twodogs
Roar Rookie
good luck my post modernist friend – edited*
K.F.T.D.
Roar Rookie
Don’t watch either- except for Rugby. Have watched rugby shows in NZ- they do it better. Shouldn’t complain at least it’s better than last year. Cheers!
KTinHK
Roar Pro
I don’t watch TV, hence have not seen it. I particularly don’t like those blokey football shows. They are typically full of rubbish. Maybe this one is different? I wouldn’t know.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
When replying to a thread, it's a courtesy to read all the posts in it, starting with the parent.
K.F.T.D.
Roar Rookie
Hey - what do you think of the Boys own Manual TV presentation on Stan with Hoiles and Goog? I watch- but not a fan. Please discuss? Or not?
twodogs
Roar Rookie
not only do I not disagree, I have no idea what you are talking about.
KTinHK
Roar Pro
I can vaguely even remember that we had a fight KFTD. I've had so many on this forum, some of them not pleasant. Hence my rare appearances these days. I do remember our good exchanges though K.F.T.D. , and there have been a lot of them. You're a good man.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
Actually, what the widowed Muslim woman said was, to call out as harmful and dangerous the views which lead to white supremacists thinking it's ok to massacre people. You may disagree.
twodogs
Roar Rookie
It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. Thank you for showing us the way to build utopia via your post-modernist/intersectional academic teachings comrade Ankle-tapped, my lens is going clear!
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Somebody mentioned that international rugby is the big money spinner. That is probably worth mentioning because the 6N PE deal will probably survive because a lot of the actual cost are downstream so it will be difficult to tie a nation's financial problem to a fall in 6N revenue. There will be a long term intangible cost, the probable loss of FTA exposure.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
It is unfortunate, I can't stop it :unhappy: I am very sceptical about the crowds coming back in Sydney. They did not return in 2014 so I am not sure when that happens. It will probably require a substantial change in marketing strategy and execution which has not changed in 20 years.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Since pe created a bubble in soccer that they can’t sustain anymore they now got their dirty hands on rugby (and other sports). So while there might be not enough money in Australia there’s more money globally. Some unions will inevitably crumble because of it. But ultimately even those predatory dimwits in France and such will face a dead end. Although they’ll accumulate lots of wealth from unsuspecting and careless public first. That’s how pe ‘deals’ with it. They don’t care about survival only about profit
Muglair
Roar Rookie
100%. RA is a great text book on failure and turnaround. I wrote a whole series of articles on it a couple of years ago and nothing is changed since. Sadly Hamish's "centralisation" plan was just a facsimile under the current constitution for his preferred restructure of creating a commission to run professional rugby. Making his life easier by centralising control of all revenues and removing the difficult parts, leaving the states without any income, but the responsibility for community rugby and pathways. The professional side must produce a substantial surplus and cannot afford a loss making 2nd (and 3rd) tier. By accepting that you then just stumble blindly into the current position of bleeding the game to over pay 2nd and 3rd tier players. We are no different to netball; we are the entertainers, the people that customers pay to see, but it is irrelevant that we should be paid more to play than people are prepared to pay to watch. League converts are not the problem but the more teams, more games, more revenue model did not work from day 1, but no administrator has been prepared to address that. Cutting the Force was at the insistence of SANZAAR not RA. This is JON's great failure, there was never a post 2003 plan. 3rd tier and development pathways was the answer, not new SR teams.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Well yes the more money involved the less they care. And funny thing it reflects on the field eventually that they play for paycheck not because they care or enjoy it
Guess
Roar Rookie
It's not imposed by size or Australia shooting itself in the foot it's imposed by France and other muppets inflating salaries and poaching your players. Size wasn't your problem in past. Rugby is now at the stage where soccer was 20 years ago and the game is gonna be ruined because of those clowns
Wizz
Roar Rookie
Yes it's all gotten very general,nothing actually fact based anymore..
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
The vast majority who support issues on Any side are just saying ‘Damn you and your generalisations about My Mob’
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Great. Now that’s settled maybe we can all get some sleep
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Mugs, the catastrophe that is how Australian rugby has been mismanaged would be an excellent PhD for someone. Integration is indeed the key word and, for example, ripping up a world leading national coaching programme and letting the states do what they liked has proved disastrous. Even the new proposals aren't fully tackling this, although they are an improvement on what's gone before. I don't think it's realistic to expect pro club rugby to be profitable - nowhere has managed that - but you can control costs and market it better. Australia did this very well until at least 2002 but cutting community spending to pay for big money league converts and extra teams simply beggars belief.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
Notably, the sporting isolation of South Africa did not involve major international sporting events being held in South Africa.