PLANS ARE BEING developed for a new Rugby Club World Cup to launch in 2028.
The competition would likely involve eight teams from the Champions Cup facing off against eight teams from Super Rugby and Japan.
Discussions about the Club World Cup continued this week at the inaugural EPCR Club Conference, which was convened by the organisers of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup and included all of their 42 clubs, as well as representatives from World Rugby, the Six Nations, URC, Top 14, and Premiership.
With their Southern Hemisphere counterparts also showing strong interest in developing a Club World Cup, talks continue around the possible format for the competition.
Among the options being discussed would be to split the eight match weekends of the Champions Cup into two blocks, with the first used to run pool stages that see the top eight teams from Ireland, England, France, South Africa, Italy, Scotland, and Wales qualify for the Club World Cup.
The second block of four match weekends would then be used for the Club World Cup, most likely in June 2028. That would require a rejig of the URC, Top 14, and Premiership calendars, but there appears to be a willingness from all sides to adjust every four years.
Speaking today after the conclusion of the Club Conference, EPCR chairman Dominic McKay expressed his optimism that plans can proceed for the Club World Cup to formally become part of the rugby landscape.
“That was discussed as one of the strategies that EPCR is taking forward on behalf of the stakeholder group,” said McKay.
“There’s a real warmth to develop a World Club Cup and a number of the clubs from France and the UK were pushing this quite hard. We know it’s a complicated project. We’re keen to really work hard to deliver it, but it needs to be additive.
“It needs to be additive from a player’s point of view, so it needs to work in terms of calendar, format, and logistics for the players, number one.
“Secondly, we need to make sure that it’s done in a way that’s respectful sustainably, so we’re not interested in just doing a one-off World Club Cup. We want to do something that’s meaningful and has a pattern of regularity. So we’re looking at doing something, if we can, potentially in 2028 and potentially 2032.
“We’re working towards that and we’re having great dialogue with our colleagues in the Southern Hemisphere. So I suspect the next few months will be really instructive on that.
“But it was really positive to hear the desire from our clubs to challenge us at EPCR to work hard on that project, as we’re currently doing.”
The idea would be for the Club World Cup to be run every four years, although McKay stressed that there is a lot more work to be done on the concept, including around the structure and possible locations for hosting the competition.
He said there was an indication that broadcasters would be interested in a format that was able to declare one club as the “greatest” in the world.
McKay spoke enthusiastically about the value of the first-ever EPCR Club Conference, which was held in Toulouse on Monday and Tuesday, and involved the clubs and governing bodies sharing ideas and best practice around things like broadcasting, the digital sphere, ticketing, branding, and long-term strategy for the sport.
“For example, in France, there was a big discussion on broadcasting and how broadcasting with Canal+ has been a real additive to growing the sport both domestically but also helping them at an international level in terms of exciting the audience in France,” said McKay.
“So the experience of a broadcaster that’s really aggressively assisting with the marketing of the club game was something which no other parts of the leagues and the clubs really appreciated. There was sharing of documentation, sharing of information off the back of that.”
There were also discussions about the development of women’s rugby, including planning for a Women’s European Cup competition in the club game.
“There is a very active discussion ongoing at the moment around that,” said McKay.
“We want to do that in a respectful and timely manner, so we’re at the foothills of that as a project but we’re very encouraged from the clubs and unions to try and deliver something in the short- to medium-term on that one.”
