We should be talking about Durban debacle
THE final report from World Rugby on the South African application to host the Rugby World Cup was as notable for what wasn’t in it, as much as for what was.
The South Africans made huge financial promises. They outbid both Ireland and France. No bother to outbid your opponents with playdough, but show me the money.
The recommendation to award the Rugby World Cup to South Africa is flawed on so many levels, not the least of which is the security rating given to South Africa by the World Cup Review committee. Yes, folks, according to World Rugby, South Africa, with more than 50 murders every day, is every bit as safe as Ireland.
Promising and doing are two different things. South Africa didn’t even pay the £5m bid money needed to host the 2023 Commonwealth Games in the city of Durban. Highly placed sources tell of how it was the South Africans missed the second stage payment owed to the Commonwealth Games.
It took months of wrangling to wrest the first payment from Durban. The second payment was never paid and Durban withdrew. Sources confirm the city was about to be kicked out by the Commonwealth Games executive committee. Durban didn’t jump, it was pushed.
Durban and South Africa were given every chance. Every deadline was missed. There wasn’t even a proper organising committee. Durban and South Africa promised the moon but failed to deliver on almost every single commitment made in their original bid. Durban was awarded the Games in September 2015 but its bid was as good as over by March 2016.
So you might say two different events. Rugby is rugby and the Commonwealth Games is like a mini-Olympics with athletics, swimming and most of the Olympic sports. This prestigious event is confined to the Commonwealth countries, all of which were at some stage under the rule of Britain and still retain strong social, economic and political ties.
World Rugby just had to have known about the failed Durban bid seeing as 7s rugby is part of the Commonwealth Games programme, and has been for more than 20 years. In short, if World Rugby didn’t know about Durban, it was guilty of carelessness in the extreme. There was no mention of the Durban fiasco in its report.
The South African sports minister at the time was Fikile Mbalula, who let it be known Durban couldn’t afford to hold the Commonwealth Games. In fact, the South African government hadn’t even signed the Host agreement. The government would not guarantee to pay any losses.
“We gave it our best shot but we can’t go beyond. If the country says we don’t have this money, we can’t,” said Mr Mbalula.
So you might say ‘well that’s just athletics and stuff’. But the chief executive of the Durban Commonwealth Games bid was a Mr Mark Alexander, who may be known by some of you in World Rugby.
You see Mark is now the president of the South African Rugby Union and Saru would be more or less running the Rugby World Cup. That’s him smiling away in the picture above, delighted with himself when Durban was awarded the Commonwealth Games.
And who is the current South African police minister? Well, it’s none other than our old friend, the former sports minister Mr Fikile Mbalula, who said there was no money for the Commonwealth Games. And they have him in charge of minding the hundreds of thousands of visitors who would be in South Africa for the World Cup. So where’s the extra money for the extra security going to come from?
There are so many lovely, friendly people in South Africa of the welcomes, but it’s a very dangerous place.
So World Rugby either chose to ignore the evidence before its very eyes, or could it be it just didn’t think the failure of South Africa to come up with just £5m and back up its promises to the Commonwealth Games was significant.
The bid price for the Rugby World Cup was €120m – which is about 20 times more than the amount reneged on by South Africa for the ill-fated Commonwealth Games bid.
South Africa promised about €30m more than us, money it said the country didn’t have a year ago.
This paper has exclusively learned from a trusted, highly-placed source that the failure by South Africa to pay up the second stage payment has put the Commonwealth Games finances under severe pressure. Luckily, Birmingham came along and bailed out the games with a superbly organised bid.
This year’s Commonwealth Games conference on the Gold Coast of Australia was due to be held in October. This vital Commonwealth meeting had to be cancelled because the South Africans hadn’t paid up. The financial future of World Rugby may be put at risk if South Africa bails out again.
Ireland finished five points behind South Africa in the Word Rugby final report under the heading ‘Venues and Host cities’.
And, yes, Durban is one of the host cities. And senior rugby figures in the city claim the stadium is not suitable for rugby. But South Africa says the work will be done, even though World Rugby stated all was oven-ready in South Africa.
Can you imagine what the bank manager would say if you looked for a loan when you had a track record of failing to keep your financial and organisational promises for a previous loan? Where was the commercial common sense in World Rugby?
In the pre-bid papers, World Rugby looked for “comprehensive and enforceable public and private sector guarantees”. And “a commercially successful event with a fully funded, robust financial model”. Oh yeah.
World Rugby hasn’t yet explained why the Durban disaster wasn’t referenced. Durban is no Dublin.
THE World Rugby review committee is made up of Billy Beaumont, Gus Pichot (the Argentinian deputy chair of World Rugby), Gareth Davies (ex-Welsh fly-half and chair of Wales), World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper (an Australian), Mike Hawker (also an Aussie and a director of Aviva plc).
Mr Hawker is an “independent” member. But he was chairman of the Australian Rugby Union, a World Rugby Council member and on its executive committee. The independent member should have come from outside rugby.
The final vote scheduled for Wednesday next must be postponed to allow for further investigations into this glaring omission of any reference to the Durban disaster by World Rugby. The whole of the report that sought to vindicate the South Africa bid must be reviewed by independent auditors and security analysts.
Dick Spring, Ireland’s bid chair, is fighting every step of the way. Philip Browne, CEO of Irish rugby, has tried his best. We produced a superb bid that would have brought us international acclaim and a big pay day in the short and in the long term. Spring hasn’t given up hope. He is not to be underestimated, but I fear we are in trouble.
Poet WB Yeats wrote: “I have spread my dreams under your feet;
“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
World Rugby wore the long studs. World Rugby trampled all over a nation’s dreams and hopes.
Yes, folks, according to World Rugby, South Africa, with more than 50 murders every day, is every bit as safe as Ireland