World Rugby Nations Championship: deal with Infront "guarantees €5.8bn investment over 12 years"

The new World Rugby competition format "would be underpinned by a record commercial partnership with leading global sports marketing company Infront, guaranteeing almost £5bn (€5.8bn) for investment in the sport over an initial 12-year period (of which more than £1.5bn/€1.66bn is guaranteed incremental revenue for the world game)," said World Rugby about the concept of a "Nations Championship" which was proposed during a meeting in Dublin (IRL) on 14/03/2019.

"The proposed business model covers both media and marketing rights but does not include any sale of equity in the competition and therefore full control of the competition and its revenue redistribution model would be retained by the unions, the current major competitions and World Rugby," said the body which "outlined details of a game-changing competition model that delivers a true pathway for all unions through a three-division format and a system of promotion and relegation," on 06/03/2019. In the new version of the competition proposed on 14/03/2019, the body "canceled the inter-conference semi-finals."

To discuss the…