Chaos in world rugby

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trendylfj
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Chaos in world rugby

Post by trendylfj »

Am I alone in believing that there is so much chaos in world rugby and it is all down to money.
Super rugby's attempt to lose an Australian team (the Force) is now going to court/arbitration (http://www.eurosport.co.uk/rugby/_sto62 ... tory.shtml), billionaires are offering silly money if the Force survive the axe (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... aru-begins),

South Africa losing 2 of their sides, possibly to the pro 12 which also seems to be in a mess due to no fixture list (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugb ... s-13405827).

The Italian side Zebre having to be taken over but the IRF (http://www.the42.ie/zebre-pro12-withdra ... 4-Jul2017/) again because of money issues.

Is this a clear warning for the premiership?
Hehehehehehehehe
drc_007
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Re: Chaos in world rugby

Post by drc_007 »

I don't think this is anything particularly new, and I'm not sure the concerns are confined to rugby. Any team that is reliant on the largess of a wealthy individual lives under a shadow if that individual decides to stop funding them. There have been some passionate, long term wealthy supporters of rugby team but I suspect all realise that the teams will eventually have to be self-financing.
Noddy555
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Re: Chaos in world rugby

Post by Noddy555 »

When will we face the reality that the world of professional Rugby Union at the very top is run by a bunch of amateurs pretty much like soccer is with Fifa, They all need replacing.
mj2012
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Re: Chaos in world rugby

Post by mj2012 »

As with others, there's too much dependence on wealthy individuals. We need to make sports sustainable. Take the large amounts of money out of football and rugby - transfer caps for example - and surely this will move towards bringing prices down too? Idk how it'll ever be resolved successfully.
He he shamone, but with a better touch :smt023
drc_007
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Re: Chaos in world rugby

Post by drc_007 »

Noddy555 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:21 pm When will we face the reality that the world of professional Rugby Union at the very top is run by a bunch of amateurs pretty much like soccer is with Fifa, They all need replacing.
Amateurs would imply unpaid
The RFU's Ian Ritchie earns £600,000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... 00000.html
tjs10
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Re: Chaos in world rugby

Post by tjs10 »

The Super rugby debacle isn't all down to money per se.

As it stood, the Super 18 was not as competitive as it could have been and supporters were losing interest. It had got to that state because of money (more unnecessary franchises in Aus & SA, combined with spreading their "brand" with franchises in Japan & Argentina. The product had got too diluted and, while they realised some franchises needed to be cut, they didn't want to drop their new cash cows in Arg & Jap so the weakest 2x SA & 1x Aus were threatened with the axe.

SA dealt with it quickly & simply and the two franchises moved north to secure their future.

Aus entered a protracted legal scrap where neither of the two options the ARU considered were willing to roll over and die (for various reasons) while the more sensible choice was dropped with barely a consideration.

ARU want to cut Western Force as it costs them money. They spent $3M bailing out WF last year, but WF believe the current Broadcast Agreement obliges ARU to keep the franchise in WA until 2020. Having a franchise in WA also stops the sport becoming solely east coast. Twiggy is a big rugby fan & wants to keep the franchise in WA and so is putting his money where his mouth is and offering to plough some of his billions into grassroots rugby if WF is retained.

Melbourne Rebels are now privately owned, meaning that ARU would need to buy back the franchise in order to shut them down. This would not be cheap by any means as the owner, publicly at least, doesn't want to sell. (Privately he is rumoured to welcome a sale as he wants to cut his losses but wants a fair price for his efforts to date.)

The other option, of merging Brumbies & Rebels seemed to be more straightforward & had quite a lot of support nationally, seemed to be overlooked immediately by ARU. Probably because they don't want to change the "established" sides, even if they aren't working and don't have the support or geographic spread of some others.


In short, the ARU are a bunch of muppets who make the RFU look professional! This ongoing saga (which was supposed to have been resolved by Easter) just brings that to the wider global public attention...
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