World Cup could be expanded to 24 teams
WORLD Rugby are considering expanding the Rugby World Cup to allow 24 teams to compete.
The changes won’t be brought in ahead of next year’s tournament in Japan, but World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper has stated that the board are considering increasing the teams from 20 to 24 for the 2023 World Cup in France.
“We’re aways looking from an expansive point of view rather than reducing so it’s just a question of when rather than if,” Gosper said.
“We want to make sure the teams are competitive enough to move to a 24-team tournament. We have assumed 20 for 2023 but we could change that between now and 2023.
“The tendency for us is to try and look to expand. It’s about growing the global game - getting interest from fans and commercial interest in new markets.
“But you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the teams. We’re definitely in an expansive mindset, is how I’d put it.”
The last time the tournament was expanded was 1999 - when the number of teams increased from 16 to the current total of 20.
Gosper’s comments suggest that even if the 2023 edition doesn’t see an expansion, the 2027 likely would.
More teams could potentially see a mismatch between the teams - given it possibly took until the last World Cup in 2015 for the one-sided routs of the last expansion to die down - but Gosper is confident that the teams are given enough support to be competitive.
“We’ll work hard after that team qualifies to ensure they’ve got all the technical coaches they need as we do for each World Cup,” Gosper said.
“We are confident that team that qualifies will be competitive enough, even against the All Blacks.”
So far, 19 of the 20 teams for next year’s global showpiece have booked their places, with the final country to be decided at a repechage tournament in Marseille in November.