2031 Rugby World Cup may be played in the summer
The 2031 World Cup could be moved to summer to avoid a clash with the NFL after the United States were awarded the tournament for the first time.
Rugby chiefs are considering the drastic change that would enable them to stage matches in American football stadiums – and pleaded for a “grown-up discussion” with domestic leagues to facilitate the new dates.
The US will stage both the 2031 men’s edition of the World Cup and the women’s tournament in 2033, with England handed the 2025 women’s World Cup and Australia landing both tournaments in 2027 and 2029.
But it is the news that the tournament could be moved from its traditional slot in the autumn that is likely to cause friction with the domestic game and raise eyebrows among traditionalists. The NFL season starts in September and the majority of the 25 stadiums included as part of the proposal host American football sides. The remainder are MLS football grounds.
Alan Gilpin, the chief executive of World Rugby, confirmed that the tournament window could be changed. “We would consider moving
[the] Rugby World Cup,” he said. “If you think of the 2003 World Cup in Australia, it was slightly later than the window we have got now and the certainty we have got from today is to spend the time thinking about the benefits and challenges involved in that and it would involve some really grown-up discussions with leagues around the world and the impact that could have.”
Gilpin was keen to play down comparisons with this year’s football World Cup, which is being held in November and December in Qatar. “We are not going to do a Qatar and plonk it in the middle of other competitions. There are those conversations to be had,” he said.
There could be further benefits to World Rugby, which is keen to gain a foothold in America, and Gilpin hopes the tournament may become part of the American consciousness with the support of NFL sides whose grounds he intends to use.
“What has been interesting in the bid has been the supportive nature of a lot of the NFL franchises,” he said. “Can we be smart around that? If we could harness a little bit of a partnership with the NFL franchises around hosting, the ability for [the World Cup] to come alive quickly would be fantastic.”