Report: World club comp would be played every 4 years and could start as soon as 2022
Comments made by the head of ECPR suggest that a world club competition could be ready to roll in 2022, as rugby union’s landscape looks set to make another tectonic shift. The plans come on the back of a World Rugby conference held online earlier this month.
Presidents and representatives from both the northern and southern hemispheres took part in an online forum which looked at creating a new unified global rugby calendar. The meeting included more than 50 people, including England captain Owen Farrell and ex-All Black Conrad Smith representing the international players.
While the Test windows were the main focus, stakeholders are also looking at a possible world club competition, which would pit the planet’s biggest club sides against one another.
Fixtures like Leinster versus Crusaders or Saracens versus the Auckland Blues make for a mouth-watering prospect, should such a deal get greenlighted.
ECPR chairman Simon Halliday told The Guardian’s Paul Rees that the new competition, which could mirror the new global international competition being mooted by World Rugby, could be up and running in just 18 months.
Halliday also suggested how a club competition might work, but pointed that it could not involve extending the season any longer then it already is. “We would play the group stage of the Heineken Champions Cup and the quarter-finalists would be drawn with the last eight teams in Super Rugby.”
“The idea is that it would be played every four years. It would not be held in the year of a Lions tour or when a World Cup is staged, so we are looking at 2022, which gives us time, or 2024. It is an exciting idea and I hope the current crisis leads to a change in the way in which the game is governed, with clubs playing a full part.”
Getting various unions and privately owned clubs across the world to agree on a format could be challenging. Earlier this month European club rugby chiefs insisted they are not blocking moves to thrash out a new global calendar season and believe World Rugby has failed to recognise the potential massive losses the northern hemisphere game faces without an agreed new structure.
Meanwhile NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson criticised the unwillingness for change from English and French clubs, saying: “We had have hoped that they might come to the table with a little more compromise.”
However, RugbyPass was told that the southern hemisphere unions only discovered the full extent of the work that has been undertaken by the French Top 14 (LNR), Guinness PRO14 and England’s Premiership (PRL) clubs at the virtual meeting.
The French clubs put forward their view of a new global calendar in which the July window for Test matches is retained and the club season runs from September to July. The French plan would also mean the Six Nations is shortened from seven to six weeks and the Champions Cup from nine to eight weeks.
What frustrated the European clubs at the meeting was “short-termism”, with the main focal point the looming October and November Test window which the major unions want to ensure is played to generate much-needed cash.
Under the planned Test schedule, England would play a seven-Test programme facing Italy and two Tests in Japan and return to Twickenham for games with New Zealand, Argentina, Tonga and Australia – travel restrictions permitting.
In order to create a new global season, the English Premiership, Guinness Pro14, French Top 14 and even Super Rugby could all be required to readjust their seasons. There is expected to be some opposition to any restructuring from some of the major European clubs.
Speaking earlier this month, Paul Goze, president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby in France, warned that some Top14 clubs will be wary of change.
“The first [point] is that if we play in those months in the summer, we lose the length of our competition,” Goze said. “At the moment we occupy 10 months and it’s like a TV series.
“Every week there is a new moment in the series, and so everyone is talking about it and people are really involved — and our broadcaster, Canal Plus, likes that. That’s very important for our revenue.
“If you play in the summer it’s no good for ticketing because people are on holiday. It’s no good for our corporate sponsors because they can’t invite guests and do their entertainment.
“You have events like the Tour de France, the Olympic Games in some years and so on. The sports competitions and other distractions in July and August are just too much.”
Other clubs and leagues may share similar concerns.
Comments on RugbyPass
Pick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
15 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
15 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
15 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
15 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
15 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
15 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
15 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to comments