Plans for a breakaway global rugby league featuring the top 200 players in the world playing for eight franchise clubs at ‘Formula One style’ festivals across major cities are said to be in advanced stages, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
Sources claim that a “significant majority” of leading players have already committed to the new project that could see them forced to choose between club and country if World Rugby and the unions within each nation block the move.
It is understood the breakaway league is being funded by a small group of UK and US investors who want to reset the club game in a vein similar to the IPL’s impact on cricket amid mounting concerns about the long-term financial viability of the sport. They are targeting a start date of 2026 for the new tournament.
The move represents an immediate challenge for World Rugby’s new chairman Brett Robinson, who warned that the sustainability of the game is “at crisis point” after winning Thursday’s election in Dublin, replacing outgoing chair Sir Bill Beaumont.
The proposed league is thought to represent the most serious challenge to the world order since Kerry Packer, the Australian media tycoon, sought to recruit leading players in 1995 when the game turned professional, only for the national unions to retain control.
It is understood the plans include:
- Eight franchises to go out to auction, with a number of countries represented
- Signing up the leading 200 players in the world
- Each franchise to play each other twice across 14 rounds
- Matches would be played across various major cities as a ‘travelling festival’ similar to Formula One
- Organisers would ensure the rugby festival is the ‘biggest event’ in that city each weekend and in new territories for the sport
- A new women’s full-time professional league
- To promote players as sporting personalities
The London-based global advisory firm Milltown Partners are understood to be spearheading efforts to cast the net over professional rugby players across the globe. One inside source told Telegraph Sport: “These guys are big players.”
Backers of the new league insist that players would still be available to play Test rugby for their countries and that domestic leagues would remain in place, but the new tournament would revolutionise the profile of the sport.
“We want more fan engagement, a better product on the field, fewer games for players and a commercial model to allow more money to flow into the game at every level by appealing to new audiences,” said another source.
“We want to remove barriers of entry to the sport by taking it to all corners of the world. There will be a full release for international games because that is the pinnacle for every player, but we want to enhance and amplify the sport to protect its future.”
‘IPL-style’
Recent reports in South Africa have suggested that several South African players have been contacted about an “IPL-style” tournament that would provisionally take place in the US in 2026, which received strong interest from those spoken to.
Lucrative salaries in the region of $900,000 (£708,000) would, the report states, be put on the table for those willing to take the risk, given any such competition could potentially throw international participation into jeopardy.
It is understood that several agents and executives within rugby administration have already been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to advance negotiations.
Telegraph Sport has spoken to other agents who are not part of the negotiations but who are aware of the new venture, which would require mammoth financial backing to get off the ground owing to ongoing player contracts and agreements.