The law of unintended consequences: Perverse incentives, eligibility and the Pacific Islands
During British rule in India, the government, concerned about the numbers of venomous snakes in the country, offered a reward to anyone who killed…
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Probably the most sensible take on the current global season talks I’ve seen so far (north or south).
Whether we like it or not, the Top 14 are a major stakeholder in the professional game and they aren’t going to back something which damages their commercial revenues with no clear and obvious gain for them. French clubs currently play 32 regular season games (league + European), with another 6 weeks reserved for European knockouts and league play-offs – any global season would require a major change to the French (and English) season structure. Said change will probably require a lot of compensation to account for the fact that any Top 14 or Premiership broadcast deal will be less valuable.
From the stuff that was coming out the proposed calendar looked a bit of a mess anyway – moving the Rugby Championship and holding that and the Six Nations slap bang in the middle of the club season was something that this whole exercise was designed to avoid. Hopefully something better can be negotiated.
I don’t support promotion and relegation from the Six Nations because it doesn’t expand the number of seats at the top table – it just changes who sits in them. If the mega-private equity deal allows World Rugby to invest in the Rugby Europe Championship countries so that the REC is equal to the 6N in terms of standard of play and gets equivalent coverage, then everyone wins. The 6N need to include the second tier European sides in their itinerary however – Georgia have managed to get the odd November test against them every now and again but this isn’t good enough.
The Wrap: Private equity can fix rugby, but only if rugby gets it right