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'It is very early' - English clubs yet to agree on Club World Cup
European rugby chiefs are driving plans to create a Club World Cup to be played every four years involving eight teams from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres but English officials insist that nothing has been signed or agreed.
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The Club World Cup is understood to be driven by Mark McCaffery, formerly in charge of Premiership Rugby and now a non-executive director on the board of European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), who organise the Heineken Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup.
The competition, which would take place instead of the knockout rounds of the Champions Cup and see the Premiership final brought forward to early May, with the new competition starting in 2025 and held every four years.
The Telegraph reported yesterday that the proposal is for eight northern hemisphere clubs and seven from the southern hemisphere, plus a Japanese side to be placed in one of the four pools, each playing two matches against teams from the other hemisphere. The winner of each pool would progress to the semi-finals with the winner being able to call themselves the world club champion.
A Premiership insider told RugbyPass the arrival of private equity firm CVC who have bought into the Six Nations and leading European leagues has triggered the search for new competitions and revenue, explaining: “The world club cup has been going on for some time and it has always been a European lead idea and when CVC came in it was something they were interested in pursuing. CVC are involved in competitions in Europe and there have been loads of changes in recent years with different structures and the question is: where is Europe going?
“With the current playing cycle Europe has been talking to the Southern Hemisphere and seeing how it can work now that the end of our season and theirs are more closely aligned. It is very early but if the top eight from both Hemispheres met it would be a good tournament and worth exploring. However, it is a bit premature but is being driven by EPCR because it is their competition window.
“The Northern and South Hemisphere different competition sponsors and broadcast rights sales and therefore there are all sorts of commercial aspects to be sorted out. The concept is good it is just does the format work and can it be a commercial success?”
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A competition to find the best team in the world has been enthusiastically backed by Steve Diamond, the Worcester boss, who is the longest serving director of rugby in the English game. He sees the new concept as crucial to helping the sport become financially viable following the massive impact on the sport’s finances caused by the pandemic.
Diamond told RugbyPass: “There is some information around and they have got to an advanced stage and the people who run the Premiership and the owners know what they are doing. With investors like CVC it is important to make the game as global as possible and if you are one of the clubs that gets to the knock out stages of the Heineken Cup then there is going to be an added incentive to play in another competition not every year.
“I am all for it and positive about the way the game is going. We have come through COVID and Brexit and everything is hard work surviving and if people are looking at bringing in more revenue in that is important because we can’t cover costs anymore. We need new income streams – absolutely.
“This competition looks really positive and it is not every year and the biggest issue for the players is that wages have gone down. That is why we have to look at ways of bringing new money in.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments