II'm back. And now it might actually happen. The idea of a formal Club World Cup has been brewing for decades, but it is now almost certain that it will be held in 2028. Sixteen teams will compete in the northern hemisphere over four consecutive weekends in June, with one winner chosen. Insert your own personal reaction emoji here.
As ever, it probably depends on where you happen to be sitting. If you're a cash-strapped manager struggling to keep your club's game afloat, instinctively it will seem like a no-brainer. The best teams from each hemisphere will be pitted against each other, with increased global television and sponsor exposure, clearly defined spots on the calendar, and the potential for hemispheric weather. Tick, tick, tick.
And yes, at first glance, there would be some intriguing matchups. If it starts this season, the last eight Champions Cup teams (Leinster, La Rochelle, Northampton, Bulls, Bordeaux, Harlequins, Toulouse, Exeter Chiefs) plus the top six Super Rugby teams and potentially Japan. Two of the most powerful clubs will be participating. . Will the current New Zealand top teams, the Blues and Hurricanes, play against Leinster and Toulouse? From north and south alike, there's a good chance he'll watch a game or two, if only out of curiosity.
But let's press pause for a moment. What about the significant impact on the traditional pillars of the club game? There have been some clever tweaks to the schedule, but the knock-out phase of the Champions Cup will be eliminated once every four years to encourage a new concept. But were the designers too clever for their own good?
Is it really progress, for example, to dilute what is arguably the world's most attractive club rugby tournament in favor of Japanese conference leaders Toshiba Brave Lupus and Saitama Wild Knights, who will play at Exeter and Northampton in June? Or?
And for that matter, what about the players? Imagine you are an international prop forward from the northern hemisphere. You fought your way through an endlessly grueling World Cup preparation camp, then fought your way through the tournament banfights themselves, and fought your way through a fierce Six Nations Championship (with one less rest weekend than before). ). And now you are reading your diary in a sideways position in a dark room.
Under the proposed new arrangements, the domestic club season would have to peak earlier and further into May. The Club World Cup is also coming to an end. Several more long-haul flights are then scheduled to take part in the new Nations League, which will be replaced by traditional temporary tours from 2026. After a few weeks of hectic vacation, he trains hard to earn a spot at the British Air Show. The following summer, the Irish Lions toured. Maybe Elton John's “I'm Still Standing” will be the official walk-on anthem? Either that or Abba's money, money, money.
But anything other than blind optimism is likely to be frowned upon. Indeed, on the plus side, it could bring a little more order to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which until now has masqueraded as rugby's global fixture list. There is no longer any chance that France's Top 14 will continue to play until June, or that matches between high-profile European clubs will be sandwiched between major domestic fixtures.
Another familiar cry would be that if the rugby authorities do not create some kind of coherent World Club Championship, someone else will. Mark McCafferty, then chief executive of Premiership Rugby, said in 2010: “We've had approaches from not only our clubs but also clubs in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere, Monaco, Abu Dhabi and more recently South Africa.” he said. It's not going to be built by stakeholders in rugby, it's going to be built by someone else and outsiders will be coming in. ” Fourteen years later, the same argument applies, as golf and other sports can attest.
But the big difference now is that English clubs are desperately trying to survive. Newcastle are yet to release their full-year results, but the latest calculations put their total losses in the last financial year alone at around £25m. Super Rugby is not flooded with investor money either. While France's top teams are in danger of disappearing into another commercial stratosphere, they also recognize the value of their collective foothold in wider global markets.
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So some credit should be given to all those who spent endless years sitting in committee rooms and throwing diaries at each other's heads in search of a workable date, then and now. There is also a sense that nothing has changed. The same old attempt to force quarts into the pint pot in terms of player and team loads. Same old flawed logic. In this case, reducing the knockout leg in his Cup of Champions every four years does not detract from the tournament's profile in his other three years. And a similar disregard for an overheated planet that barely needs more professional rugby teams than ever to fly around the world.
Some may argue that the precedent was set a long time ago, with South African teams already competing in the United Rugby Championship and the Champions Cup. And money tends to be the biggest topic. Given the precarious financial situation of rugby clubs, doing nothing is not an option. This is a moonshot that may one day open up previously unreachable horizons. So get ready to be world club champion and maybe even a major rugby final in the Middle East. It may not be to everyone's taste, but the future is near.
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