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Mark McCafferty, the former chief executive of Premiership Rugby, believes agreement for a new Club World Cup could be signed in October and launched in 2024 as part of a radical shake-up of the sport globally.
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The new club competition would be staged before the planned introduction of a new Nations Championship based on the July and November international windows involving all the major playing countries in different conferences. While McCafferty is hoping to debut the club competition – to take place every four years – in 2024, the Nations Championship is now pencilled in to start in 2026.
McCafferty stepped down as Premiership Rugby CEO after 14 years in 2019 and is currently a Director of European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) who run the Heineken Champions Cup. He is also an advisor to CVC Capital Partners, the private equity company, that has bought a share of the Six Nations and leading European leagues.
McCafferty told RugbyPass: “If it stays on track then by October/November we could have agreement. There are certain points in a sports’ development where you have to seize the moment and there is a growing feeling that if rugby can deliver on the global stage a new international competition – Nations Championship – combining the July and November tests windows and a new Club World Cup using existing weeks in the calendar then it is good for everyone.
“It is not adding a new competition it is enhancing existing competitions once every four years. We are giving players and fans the opportunity to see who is the best club in the world with the chance for say Toulouse to face the Crusaders or Brumbies taking on Saracens. I think it is very appetising and that’s the response we have had.
“Now, we have to make all the numbers work and those are the ongoing discussions. The starting point depends on a number of things and the date for the Nations competition is looking like 2026 and so for the club competition it could be 2024 or 2025. We have to make sure we give ourselves enough time and that is part of the current discussions with Super Rugby.
“Super Rugby have some challenges in locking down the new Super Rugby Pacific tournament for post-2023 and there are local issues to be sorted. We have lined up the calendar and the International Players Association have been involved and are happy with it and while there is still lot of detail to be finalised the direction of travel is promising. But, these things till take a lot of nailing down.”
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The emergence of CVC as a major financial player in rugby has raised concerns that they will have undue influence over the future of the sport as they search for a return on the hundreds of millions already invested. McCafferty denies this is the case and said: “CVC are supportive of the club competition, but the primary driving force comes from EPCR and Super Rugby Pacific. Clearly they (CVC) are a big share holder (in rugby) but they don’t approach things by calling the shots and I do lot of work with them.
“They want rugby to be ambitious and have more global platforms and that is in their interest. We also have 40 clubs across Europe plus 12 in Super Rugby – that is 52 clubs – who would have the opportunity to qualify into this competition once every four years before think about expansion into new markets. If now you have a domestic and European/Asia-Pacific platform but add a global one then it is interesting.
“There is an underlying principle that the existing primary partners in the Champions Cup and Super Rugby – both TV and title – would have rights in the new competition. From their point of view they would have rights that carry through into the Club World Cup. We are not selling at that level because we want to honour those contracts and we would probably add to it at a secondary level. That was one of the key commercial principles and we are trying to enhance Champions Cup and Super Rugby Pacific and make them even more valuable. We are adding not substituting.”
McCafferty has been at the heart of the drive for a world club competition and is confident the playing seasons of the two Hemispheres now allow it to happen and confirmed the Japanese club champions would be taking part. “I don’t know if you can describe it as my baby but I am certainly doing a lot of work to try and bring an agreement together. It needs a bit of driving force behind it to say the very least and that is what I have been doing for some time. My first paper to World Rugby about it was some time ago and it has been a while being nurtured. The time may well be right to do it now as things are coming together.
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“The first element goes back to the World Rugby global calendar conference in San Francisco which took place in 2017 and one of the main things that came out of that was to move the international window into July from June.
“That was a key staging post. A couple of years later, before COVID, we reached the conclusion we could not add any more weeks into the rugby calendar and so the only way to consider this was to say that once every four years we would combine the existing knock out stages of the Champions Cup and Super Rugby. That was the other breakthrough.
“The building blocks were then in place and now it is about fine tuning. The hope and expectation is we can see the launch of two new competitions while using existing weeks in the calendar.”
Comments on RugbyPass
If rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
1 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
23 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
23 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
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