Altrad’s right - it’s time to cancel European Cup
Sadly, last week’s wishful thinking is now looking like a distant dream as the new Covid restrictions condemn all grassroots rugby to at least another three months of inactivity.
The lockdown has squashed all hopes of a restart for grassroots clubs this season and so everyone must focus on keeping their clubs alive and as active as possible with as much social media contact to members as is practical.
Fortunately, even though they are a continual drain on the game, the professional clubs are showing our sport is still alive (even if it’s not thriving) thanks to their need to maintain their TV commitments for additional revenue without a ‘claw back’ by TV companies for failure to honour contracts.
But there could be disruption to European competitions with Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad rightly calling for a suspension of the Champions Cup.
Given that there are currently rules in both France and the UK that restricts travel unless it is essential, it does seem absurd to continue a competition that involves squads of up to 40-50 people travelling to another country to play a game in front of an empty stadium with a tiny TV audience.
Travelling players would face a lockdown on return that would limit their availability for league games, which explains why clubs are fielding weaker teams, making the competition a waste of time and an unnecessary risk for all involved.
Even the Six Nations competition would seem a risk, but at least the teams would be at full strength, plus a lockdown break for the players at the end of the competition would be good for player welfare and perhaps set a precedent for all international contests.
Even behind closed doors, the Six Nations would generate vital funds for each of the unions involved with a massive TV audience virtually guaranteed.
In normal circumstances, there are around eight million viewers watching each of the 15 matches, but I would hazard a guess that number could easily increase with people having to stay home.
I would assume there is little or no chance that the Six Nations will not go ahead even with a stricter lockdown, but for the Lions, I am sad to say, it’s different.
As much as I hate to say it, a Lions tour only happens these days because of the money it generates for the nations involved, particularly the host.
The idea that South Africa would send a team here to play the Lions in a Test series if the tour was cancelled in South Africa is ridiculous and so the quicker the tour is cancelled officially for this year the better for all involved.
Lions tours that were once the ‘missionaries’ of the sport, helping to spread and keep the game alive in the UK’s colonies of the past, have changed into big business generating millions of pounds for host nations and unions.
The last tour helped the New Zealand economy by around £130m and the All Blacks by £21m and there is no doubt that this series against South Africa, who are the current world champions, would have raised more.
The Lions (when they go ahead) also raise a much needed substantial sums for the Home Unions with new agreements to split the money on more equitable terms and increases in sponsorship etc.
As the biggest brand in rugby it’s hard to believe that it is only this factor that has kept them alive since the dawn of the professional game.
The constant battles that come when the Lions ask for a bit more time to prepare is a reminder that the business side of the game (the professional clubs) are the only ones who don’t directly benefit financially from a Lions tour.
This and the fact that the Lions players may feel they have increased their value and therefore want to up their salary, explains the clubs reluctance to release their players until absolutely necessary.
Tours, any tours, are something special for the players who take part as they build team mentality and form bonds that stand the test of time.
To a certain degree a Lions tour is no different, but it has the added spice for players to form bonds with others from the other Home Unions who perhaps they would only have known as opponents.
For the mass of travelling fans, many of whom save for years to afford to travel to the other side of the world, it is the trip of a lifetime while watching a team that should never win in these professional times, but still sometimes does.
It is the fact that these tours are four years apart and always on the other side of the world that makes them so special and attractive for the fans particularly when, like a World Cup or any other elite contest, the Lions team wins, they can quote Max Boyce and say: “I was there.”
“Even behind closed doors, the Six Nations would generate vital funds for unions”