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England dangle a £175m carrot in bid to stage 2007 finals

Chris Hewett
Tuesday 22 October 2002 00:00 BST
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The French Rugby Federation has secured the promotional services of Zinedine Zidane as part of its bid for the 2007 World Cup, but the Tricolores could pull in Emmanuelle Beart and Isabelle Huppert and still find themselves outseduced. England, in the shape of the thrustingly up-front Rugby Football Union, have tabled a rival 50-page proposal – complete with 134 pages of appendices, a flashy video and a CD-Rom – that will, according to the money men, generate profits of at least £175m: enough hard cash to give the sport a chance of realising its global ambitions.

At the heart of the RFU tender is a fundamental restructuring of rugby's premier event. Twickenham wants to see two tournaments rather than one: an élite competition for the big boys, and a parallel junior jamboree for everyone else. While the All Blacks and their ilk could expect to play at Twickenham, Old Trafford and Villa Park, the good rugby folk of Chile and Papua New Guinea would have to be content with the Broadway Ground in Walsall and The Haberden in Bury St Edmunds. There again, they would travel for free and have themselves some fun.

Until yesterday, the French were considered clear favourites to win this boardroom round of "Le Crunch": they have superb venues, a wildly enthusiastic rugby public and some very decent red. But the booze issue cuts both ways on the far side of the Channel: the government's ban on alcohol advertising is not exactly helpful when brewers and distillers are among the most obvious targets for the Rugby World Cup marketeers. They are also miles behind the RFU in commercial clout, and the size of the financial take will be at the top of the International Rugby Board's agenda when the decision is taken in April.

IRB members meet next month to discuss "shrinkage" – the trendy term for the financial crisis affecting Argentina, Fiji, Samoa, Canada, Romania and a number of other rugby nations whose well-being is crucial to the future of the game – and a windfall on the scale hinted at by the RFU should concentrate their minds wonderfully. "We are genuinely committed to addressing the developmental issue, and it is central to our bid," said Francis Baron, the RFU's chief executive. "We are offering clear accountability and responsibility. The buck will stop with us." And the bucks, some of them at least, will go where they are most needed.

Yesterday's campaign launch was the most confident and intelligent RFU initiative for years. The union spent £120,000 preparing the presentation, which was made to the IRB in Dublin last week, and it covered every conceivable base: match scheduling, venues, broadcasting, marketing, ticketing, security. Senior officials believe their preferred two-tier structure, involving 100 matches at 70 venues over 45 days, would generate a level of interest far greater than that witnessed in the four World Cups to date.

While the 16-team élite competition would begin with the now familiar group phase, the second round would be far more complex and concentrated than a straightforward quarter-final: a "super-eight" arrangement in which the top two teams from pools one and three would play those from pools two and four respectively. The tournament would then revert to a straight knock-out at the semi-final stage, thereby maximising the number of genuinely competitive matches that drive the commercial value of the enterprise.

Uncompetitive matches are increasingly the bane of World Cups, and even under the RFU's plan, countries that have suffered 100-point humiliations in recent tournaments – Japan, Italy, Tonga – would probably feature in the élite event, rather than the proposed 32-team Rugby World Nations Cup sideshow. But as Terry Burwell, the unions's director of operations and one of the principal architects of the bid, said yesterday: "At least we would reduce the prospect of total mis-matches. If you look at the format for next year's tournament in Australia, the issue has not been addressed at all."

At first glance, the Nations Cup idea is a commercial nightmare waiting to happen: "Czech Republic versus Cook Islands on a wet Tuesday night at Otley? What sort of crowd will you get for that?" Baron and Burwell were asked. But they had an answer for that one, too. By handing responsibility for individual matches to grass-roots clubs around the country, they believe they can create the kind of volunteer-driven feel-good factor that distinguished last summer's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

There are problems ahead. The plan to move the tournament from autumn to summer will irk the major southern hemisphere unions, who would have to reschedule their Tri-Nations and Super 12 tournaments, and the political balance of the IRB is in a state of flux following the serious illness suffered by the chairman, Vernon Pugh. But Baron was in chipper mood as he headed off for a two-week, nine-nation charm offensive that will take him from New Zealand's north island to the drinking dens of Dublin. "The politics are always there," he said, "but I believe the IRB will see this proposal for what it is: an honest piece of business, and an imaginative one."

HOW ENGLAND'S 2007 WORLD CUP WOULD WORK

* The Rugby Football Union's World Cup bid offers three potential formats: a traditional 20-team tournament with pool and knock-out stages; a 20-team competition with a cricket World Cup-style "super eight" phase replacing the quarter-finals; and a two-tier event incorporating a 16-team élite tournament plus a 32-team Rugby World Nations Cup for developing countries. This last proposal is the RFU's preferred option.

* Six Premiership football grounds – Manchester's Old Trafford and City of Manchester stadium, St James' Park in Newcastle, Villa Park in Birmingham, the Reebok Stadium in Bolton and St Mary's at Southampton – will be among the 16 venues on the élite tournament roster. The RFU has identified 54 possible grounds, from Tynedale in Northumberland to Redruth in Cornwall, for the RWNC competition.

* There would be no dedicated qualifying tournament for the élite event. Eight countries would be seeded from the 2003 World Cup, the other eight invited on the basis of world rankings and success in existing regional competitions.

* The bid urges a shifting of the tournament from its current autumn date – next year's event in Australia starts in mid-October and ends in late November – to a June-July slot. However, the RFU believes that the football grounds would be available even if it fails to win the argument over scheduling.

* The RFU is committed to an initial marketing budget of £5m and says the ticketing operation will be up and running by June 2005. The Union predicts ticket sales of more than one a half million for the élite tournament.

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