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The director general of World Rugby, Alan Gilpin, insisted that talking about a broken franchise competition is not a distraction, declaring that any investment speech is “fantastic”.
The reports have gone around a rugby golf style breakaway with investment capital and sovereign donors, to various degrees.
The details of the supposed competition, that some states would completely change the sport of rugby, are rare, but according to them, male and female competitions.
Speaking in a year when London will welcome 80,000 fans for the final of the Women’s Rugby World Cup – break the current record of nearly 40,000 people – Gilpin insisted that the speech of a rival competition does not will not derail the preparations for RWC2025.
“I don’t think we consider it a distraction,” he said. “We always talk about the escapes, always to talk about different competitions, and often at one point to talk about everything [and] Innovation in the game is fantastic.
“We want to get involved with it. We want to engage this in a way that allows these opportunities to be durable. The female game is a very young professional sport.
“There is no doubt that there is so much excitement in this tournament that I do not think that nothing distracts the teams and the players of this opportunity, and if that creates more conversations on what investment in The female game comes next, fantastic, but of course, it is part of a responsible and sustainable global calendar for the female game which gives players and fans the best opportunities. »»
World rugby should announce a number of sponsors for the Women’s Rugby World Cup this month, Gilpin insisting that certain agreed brands “are not traditionally in male rugby”.
But various world tournaments for women have had problems in the past with the type of sponsor involved in their event. Australia and New Zealand football unions wrote to FIFA before the Women’s World Cup in 2023 with regard to their plans to conclude a sponsorship agreement with the Saudi visit, and other examples exist in sport .
But the women’s rugby world cup will not have sponsors of the Middle East because, according to Gilpin, world rugby has not “continued” these opportunities.
“We don’t do [have Middle Eastern sponsors] For this tournament and it is not because it is something that is out of the table for us, but it is not something that we have continued, “added Gilpin.
“We, during the new year, will announce a series of new partners important enough for the 2025 Women’s World Cup and, really above all, certain brands that may not traditionally be in male rugby or the World Cups male rugby. “
