World Cup bidding to be overhauled
France’s shock 2023 victory prompts review Recommendation policy likely to be scrapped
The bidding process for the Rugby World Cup is expected to be overhauled in the wake of the controversy that accompanied France’s shock victory over South Africa and Ireland to host the 2023 tournament in a secret ballot last month.
World Rugby was left in a humiliating position after the governing body’s council voted against its board, who had recommended that South Africa be nominated as hosts following an independent evaluation report. Brett Gosper, World Rugby’s chief executive, announced the review after admitting the process had left the governing body “open to what is a perceived contradiction that doesn’t look tidy”.
Gosper suggested it was highly likely that the policy of the board recommending a host would be scrapped, while the use of secret ballots and the two-week gap between the announcement of the independent evaluation, and the vote taken by World Rugby’s council, would also come under scrutiny.
Gosper revealed that World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and his deputy Agustin Pichot had “not been happy” to inherit the policy of the board recommending a nomination when they were elected in 2016 and had already looked at changing it. “There are parts of the process that we will probably change next,” said Gosper. “I guess the hardest part of the review and the most contentious part was actually providing a recommendation. To be fair on Bill and Gus, when they arrived they found that and they weren’t happy with that. But because we had embarked on a system, there were certain elements countries were keen on that we were not to change one element of.
“We felt that was probably the right route. To change course halfway through was going to be uncomfortable for all sorts of reasons.”
Gosper said the process had produced “three extraordinary candidates and some real certainty financially” but conceded the rejection of the board’s recommendation had undermined it as the council was attracted to the financial strength of France’s bid.
“It has been by far the best system ever run but unfortunately it has been a little bit overshadowed by the perceived contradiction by the Rugby World Cup board – which looks at it terms of the execution of the tournament – and the Council, which looks at it in terms of the interests of the unions they are representing,” Gosper added.
“So that will be part of the review and I would be surprised if we move to a recommendation again. I know we have been criticised a few times for having a secret ballot. If the fors and against were equal, from a perception point of view an open vote sounds transparent and maybe we should consider that.”
The triumph of France’s financial clout has raised doubts about the possibility that smaller countries will ever be able to host the World Cup, but Gosper said: “My view is that Ireland proved a small country can actually host a World Cup. They provided for a country of five million people. They were highly competitive. They were sitting in terms of forecast profit area of £100million more than the World Cup in 2015. I think they proved that if a government gets its act together, and helps them and provides them the certainty, then I think there is a chance that anyone can do this provided they have got the stadia.”