By STEVE MASCORD
OUR last 24 hours, since it was announced this year’s World Cup will be on Premier Sports in the UK and Ireland, have been interesting to say the least.
Back in 1995 when England hosted the first ‘modern’ World Cup (with teams aside from The core five), it was mainly the host’s games that were on the BBC with a very obscure cable network showing the rest, just before the topless darts. This year the matches are on in the middle of the night, mostly, and clearly there was little interest from the national broadcaster.
So we’re on pay TV and the culture secretary Lisa Nandy has urged the BBC and the IRL to reconsider.
There are a few things below the surface to consider before jumping up and down about the sport being hidden away on a pay TV channel.
One is International Rugby League, who run the World Cup, and Britain’s governing body the Rugby Football League do not have a very good relationship right now.
The IRL claimed that in the face of an under-performing 2022 World Cup, Britain never paid its licence fee for hosting it. The RFL denied it was responsible for the organising committee’s losses and no-one can find the smoking gun stating otherwise.
The IRL is not going to help the RFL in any way. I’m not surprised in the least that it is searching for cash from its TV rights in the UK and Ireland rather than doing the altruistic thing and giving the games away. Yes, that might be good for the game. But it would also be good for the RFL and in the eyes of the international governing body, it owes Etihad Campus nothing.
Quite the opposite.
The other thing to understand for British readers is that the “internationals are the pinnacle and give us cut through nothing else does” narrative is not universal. It works that way in the British Isles but not elsewhere.
Origin is the pinnacle in Australia. The Warriors are the pinnacle in New Zealand. The Chiefs will be the pinnacle in Papua New Guinea.
In Australia it is understood how important the national teams are to the rise of the sport in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. It is perhaps not so widely understood how important the England team and the exposure it gets is to the game there.
All World Cups are supposedly there to make money but this one in 2026 is moreso, hence downsizing to 10 teams and all the organisation being done by the NRL. Low overheads, maximised revenue, cheap-ish tickets, playing mainly where local authorities will pay for the privilege … The entire wheelchair World Cup is at the same venue.
Perhaps the rifts will be healed by the time the 2030 World Cup comes around.
Or perhaps the idea of playing a tournament close enough to England to attract their fans but still not in England will come to fruition.
The many thousands of fans who have travelled to Las Vegas, the south of France and next year to Ireland have been noticed. Why have England as a host when you can play games on their doorstep and their fans will come to you in numbers?
Rugby league invented the Magic Weekend and it has been adapted to bush competitions, to places like France, to the women’s game and to the Championship in England. But never for internationals.
I believe a European World Cup excluding England (if that’s what they want to do) can be successfully staged with support from local authorities by making the men’s tournament a stand-alone and staging every single match at just five – or even four – venues.
How? Three Magic weekends, semis and a final, that’s how.
What I’m proposing is all 10 teams set up camp in a city for a week, like a Grand Prix, play all their matches at a single stadium over two days, and then move on. The economic activity of such a large number of people would surely attract government funding.
Maybe kick off the tournament at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, play the second week of pool matches at Paris’ Jean-Bouin, the third at the Aviva in Dublin. Perhaps have the semis as a double header at Ernest Wallon in Toulouse then back to Cardiff for the final.
Playing each round at the same venue saves money on travel, on set-up costs for broadcasters and maximises local authority buy-in. It also creates a sevens-style carnival atmosphere which – given we invented Magic – should be part of our global IP.
Yes, I know World Cups fall at the start of the football/soccer season and during rugby union’s autumn internationals. We may get a duck egg from my venue wishlist. But if we’re going to maximise profits and minimise overhead, Magic is the way to do it.
