Money men call shots, making a mockery of draw timing
THE sense that the commercial programme for the 2023 World Cup in France is paramount, while rugby comes a distant second, has been reinforced by the announcement of the draw for the tournament three years before an oval ball is passed or kicked by any of the participants.
For the first time World Rugby has agreed to put all the hospitality and travel rights within the ambit of the host union, the FFR, with the global rights to the travel programme subcontracted to local company, Groupe Couleur, by the French organising committee.
In turn, Groupe Couleur, has appointed 22 official travel agents from 13 countries who are exclusively authorised to sell ticket-inclusive travel packages for the World Cup.
Some World Cup business analysts believe the France 2023 draw announcement earlier this week is driven by the rationale that the longer the travel agents have to sell packages, whether private or corporate, the more they can maximise profits.
This appears to have taken precedence over an up-to-date draw a year out from the tournament, which would far more accurately reflect the world ranking of the participating countries, and generate far more global interest, than one taken so far in advance.
Instead of following the football World Cup model, whereby host cities are named and then countries are allocated a year before the event, according to the draw schedule, we have the playing side of the tournament being compromised by the commercial programme.
It is totally unnecessary, because all the World Cup host cities know they will be getting a similar number of fans, irrespective of whether in football they come from Brazil, Germany, or in rugby whether they are from England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Wales, Ireland, etc.
Making the draw now is a decision which is not only premature, but counter-intuitive when Europe, and large parts of the rest of the world, are still in the grip of the Covid pandemic, with no one in a position to forecast how things will look in three months, let alone three years.
This is a time when the ability of sports administrations to show flexibility and adaptability to changing circumstances is at a premium.
Instead, the 2023 World Cup draw looked like an exercise in filling in the dots with geographical names such as Africa 1, Oceania 1, Americas 1, and Asia/Pacific 1, littering the board, rather than the names of the actual participants. Why not wait until a year out, when the qualification rounds have been played and we know who the successful nations are?
Why also hold your World Cup announcement on the same day, and same time, as UEFA held their Champions League and Europa League draw?
It smacks of a professional sport which is still snared in amateur administrative ways, putting the 2023 World Cup money cart before the rugby horse that pulls the whole thing forward.