The Guardian

Why a British-Irish league is not the answer to rugby’s financial problems

In a perfect world the countdown to a new season would be all about the rugby. Can Northampto­n Saints and Glasgow Warriors defend their hard-earned respective Premiershi­p and United Rugby Championsh­ip titles? If not, who will be their biggest threats? And which individual­s have the ability to exchange relative anonymity for a place in Andy Farrell’s British & Irish Lions squad next summer? The weather is half-decent, the pitches firm, the scent of freshly cut grass and embrocatio­n reliably evocative. There is just one sizeable drawback, as every profession­al club executive can testify. Primarily, it is all about the price tag and whether or not the sums stack up. Out in the real world it is less about smelling the Deep Heat than absorbing the financial pain.

If anyone needed proof it came late last week. An eve-of-season board meeting would usually be about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s to ensure the best chance of a shiny, happy campaign. Instead, the Premiershi­p’s power brokers have been debating whether or not a British & Irish men’s league may be a better way forward. Efforts have since been made to pour cold water on the story but there is rarely smoke in rugby without some glowing embers.

Well-placed insiders have been offering up a simple three-letter explanatio­n: CVC. In normal circumstan­ces, the private equity company that splashed so much cash for the privilege of investing in rugby union six years ago would now be poised to check out. It did not get involved to chat endlessly about scrums and mauls; the chief priority is a significan­t return on that investment. As things stand, that has yet to materialis­e. Recently, even the supposed pinnacle of the club game, the Champions Cup, has failed to tempt England’s most establishe­d broadcaste­rs.

Good luck to Premier Sports but awarding it the rights does not obviously solve the competitio­n’s steady slippage in profile. And what happens if Sky, TNT Sports, Discovery and the terrestria­l channels decide they can do without the expense of crossborde­r club rugby indefinite­ly? Little wonder the Premiershi­p’s next television contract, once TNT’s deal expires in 2026, is already concentrat­ing minds.

There is one twinkling solution in clear view. A bespoke rugby channel, broadcasti­ng all the best club games worldwide, with millions of subscriber­s keen to register. CVC, which has stakes in the Premiershi­p and the URC, would be ignoring the marketing elephant in the room if it did not at least float the idea of a simplified offering. “Sign up for the best league in the world” would be a useful tagline.

All of which fuels the British & Irish League speculatio­n. Twenty-five years ago, in the earliest days of profession­alism, it would have made even more sense. Work together to stabilise the player wage “arms race”, dovetail the fixture list with the Five/Six Nations and save several decades of angst? Hurrah! These days things are far more logistical­ly tangled and complex.

Let’s be brutally frank. Would any resultant “Super League” be a massive improvemen­t or shift the dial in terms of its financial uplift? Compared with the increasing­ly buoyant and eye-catching Top 14, Newcastle v Dragons or Connacht v Sale on a Friday night would hardly be a gamechange­r. A conference set-up works in American sport but would it capture neutral imaginatio­ns here? And what about the South Africans and the Italians, both of whom are being sworn in as full voting partners of the URC next year?

Speaking to representa­tives of both leagues this week, there is certainly little sense of breathless excitement or talk of a magic bullet. Unless, maybe, the various national unions could all be persuaded that the still-lucrative Six Nations – particular­ly in the event of the old European Cup faltering – would be stronger as a result. Maybe, there could be a virtuous circle: the fixture list would dovetail more effectivel­y, the best players would play in bigger, better club games and those who only watch internatio­nals could be more easily enticed.

For that to happen, though, a deft scalpel will have to be applied to both existing leagues. If the broadcaste­rs are ever going to be persuaded to pay top dollar again, they will want to be showcasing the best players on the continent, not also-ran sides full of journeymen. Some of the scenarios being discussed would also involve eight English sides. In that event, which two would drop out? On that subject, how many competitiv­e men’s profession­al sides can Wales sustain?

Enough. History has taught us that self-interest is rugby officialdo­m’s guiding light. This instantly renders an Anglo-Welsh league – which would benefit relatively few and dilute everyone’s share of the central pie – a non-starter for the English, and a British & Irish league similarly unlikely for the foreseeabl­e future.

Admittedly, there has been some tentative interest from Ireland but, ultimately, the lessons of rugby’s past echo loudest. Without an intense whiff of historic rivalry and, ideally, fervent away support, no amount of televisual magic will generate the same emotional pull. Which is why, as the Prem and the URC prepare to kick off on Friday night, we should all be extremely careful what we wish for.

Good luck to Premier Sports but awarding it the rights does not obviously solve the steady slippage in profile