Peter Burke
LIV golf wow what a surprise that was, no one saw that coming and sure why would the Saudis want to go up against the most profitable golf tournament there is, well its very simple, money and they have loads of it.
In the featured picture for this article we have 2 players who are paid huge salaries for their services to rugby as both are on 1million plus salaries per season, one deservedly so and the other not so much. You just have to look closer to home to see the likes of Johnny Sexton who was reportedly on north of £500,000 per year, although we will never know as these figures are never released publicly by the IRFU/Leinster rugby and I can understand why.
Don’t get me wrong the allure of a good pay day is of course appealing but there comes a time when you just look at an idea or propsal and you begin to scratch your head and ask yourself ‘Why, what is the point in this ill thought out idea?’
Now we have a new unknown Rugby tournament doing the rounds online and in the various rugby mediasphere accounts and it is being written about in the mainstream print media.
So if you haven’t heard about this let me explain. Some unknown entity in the USA, could be an individual, could be an investment group but no one knows who’s behind this or their ultimate intentions, suffice to say it is actively being discussed.
So what’s the plan?
Well that’s where we have little or no information other than this group want it to kick off in 2026 and they state ‘With no interference to the current rugby calendar’ which is highly unlikely that it wouldn’t.
Currently we have the 6 Nations, The URC, The Investec European Cup, The Challenge Cup, and on rotation The Rugby World Cup, The Lions Tour. Now exactly how this new and quite frankly ridiculous idea will fit in is beyond most observers and followers of the game.
But,but, but the kick is they are offering salaries of up to 1million per season to players who join and they are looking for 280 male players and 140 female players, and my initial thought is ‘From where?’, who is going to join this idiotic idea of a league.
Most rugby teams, be they club or International, struggle to find players either domestically or country qualified to field teams as it is so my only thought is that they recruit semi retired players or retired players for one last payday and i wouldn’t blame the players for topping up their pension but who the hell wants to watch that, what network would pick that up for sale and promotion? Sure with that age profile there would be no players left in the French league or the New Zealand league to mention a few.
Apparently 30 players have agreed to sign up but we don’t know who they are as per Non Disclosure agreement signed by them, it s a long way from the numbers they need.
However, the most important issue, money aside, when are they going to play this farcical tournament? Where are they going to play it? I know America has been named but they want to rotate it among different countries, i just don’t get it.
So we don’t know who’s behind it, we don’t know who’s financing it, we don’t know the format, we don’t know the 30 who have signed up for it and to be honest we don’t care as this will probably never see the light of day and I for one will be happy to see that.