Six Nations and Sanzaar join forces in rugby power grab
All Blacks v Scotland – 3.10am, Sunday
Teams from the Six Nations and Sanzaar – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina – will join forces to pool their commercial rights in a power grab that will further entrench their financial dominance of the sport.
Following a meeting in Sydney two weeks ago, a new company will be created to run the Nations Championship, which resumes this weekend, on behalf of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere powerhouses.
It has provisionally been called F10 in relation to the 10 founding unions: England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.
A dedicated chief executive will be appointed with a brief to focus on “commercial exploitation” according to Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive.
Furthermore, they will create a rights-management agency that will aggregate the commercial rights for competitions such as the Six Nations, the British and Irish Lions tours, the Nations Championship, the Rugby Championship and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
“In effect, what we are creating is a commercial rights agency which sits underneath those 10 founding unions,” Sweeney said.
“We think that will result in a much better and more efficient approach to market and obviously with the intention of increasing overall valuations and growing the commercial side of the game.”
By pooling the North and South’s commercial rights together in the same fashion as the Six Nations did under Project Light, Sweeney anticipates that “it’s going to increase the revenue significantly” on broadcasting rights.
Yet while countries sitting at the top table, like England, will stand to benefit enormously, that will only increase the gulf between the haves and have-nots in the global game.
While Japan and Fiji have been invited to take part in the inaugural tournament as guest nations, they will only receive a participation fee rather than a slice of central commercial income.
It also seems clear that promotion and relegation, which was supposed to be a founding principle of the Nations Championship when it was backed by a World Rugby council meeting in 2023, will not apply to the F10 nations.
“There’s a review group that has been set up by World Rugby and is chaired by Brett Robinson,” Sweeney said. “They’re looking at how the aspect of promotion and relegation can be set up. The basic premise is still the same, how that comes into effect needs to be sorted out.”
Sweeney also confirmed that Qatar will not host the finals of the 2028 tournament owing to the conflict in the Middle East, a development which also led to Qatar Airways pulling out of becoming the lead sponsor. Both France and Spain have expressed interest in hosting the 2028 finals while returning to the Allianz Stadium at Twickenham is another possibility.