IT HAS ALWAYS been a question of when, rather than if, top-level 15s rugby would take itself to the Middle East.
When the World Rugby 7s Series was launched in 1999, it kicked off with the Dubai 7s in the UAE and that has become a cornerstone of the circuit.
But more recently, the 15s game has been linked with the Middle East on a persistent basis.
In 2022, the URC signed a sponsorship deal with Qatar, drawing a degree of criticism based on concerns about human rights in the Middle Eastern state.
Last year, the first-ever World Rugby WXV 3 competition took place in Dubai, with Ireland winning it.
Earlier this year, reports in the UK suggested that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had held talks with Premiership clubs with a view to buying a stake in those organisations.
And now, the Telegraph has reported that Qatar is closing in on a €940 million deal to host the finals of the new Nations Championship for at least eight years beginning in 2026 when the 12-team competition launches.
The biennial Nations Championship will involve a finals weekend at the end of November when the first-placed teams in the European and SANZAAR conferences play each other for the overall title, while second meets second, third meets third, and so on. A total of six games will decide the finishing order in the championship.
According to the Telegraph, the plan is for these games to be hosted as a ‘Super Bowl of Rugby’ across three days in Doha, which has seven top-class stadiums that were already used for the 2022 football World Cup.
The concept of a big finals weekend is exciting but many will have reservations about the proposed hosts.
Firstly, the games being so far away in Qatar means many supporters would not be able to travel. If Ireland were playing in the grand final you would get diehards who can afford such trips making the journey but many supporters wouldn’t have the money or time to trek so far.
Whatever about football, it’s seriously questionable whether rugby would attract enough travelling fans to Qatar for these finals to feel like the big event they should be.
Qatar is certainly not renowned for its rugby, the men’s national team recently finishing third in the second tier of Asian rugby after a semi-final defeat to Kazakhstan. The Qatari team includes a large portion of foreign-born players who have become eligible.
Hosting an event like the Nations Championship would surely help Qatari rugby to kick on, presumably with increased funding, but they’re stratospheres away from potentially being involved on the pitch themselves.
Doha would also be neutral ground, almost halfway between the southern hemisphere nations and their European counterparts. The mild, sunny weather in November would also appeal, with temperatures in the low- to mid-20s offering fine rugby conditions.
Still, it would seem a huge shame for at least one of the competing nations’ fans not to be able to get there in force given the distance. It might be unfair for the finals to take place in Europe but at least you’d be guaranteed full houses and raucous atmospheres.
Secondly, there is the issue of more travel for players. The southern hemisphere teams will have just played three Nations Championship games in Europe before the finals weekend. Everyone having to jump on another long flight before the Doha festival wouldn’t be optimal.
The Six Nations has already agreed to drop one of its fallow weekends from 2026 onwards to make space for this final Nations Championship weekend and you have to wonder about player welfare.
Let’s not forget that this new competition will mean Ireland’s summer tour hypothetically involving a match against Australia in Australia one weekend, New Zealand in New Zealand the next weekend, then Japan in Japan on the third weekend of their trip.
The opposite applies for the southern hemisphere nations coming north in November and while those travel distances between host nations like Ireland, England, and Italy are shorter, all of this places strain on players. Throw in a couple of flights to and from Qatar and you can see what could be asked of the top stars.
Thirdly, there is the question of human rights in Qatar.
Amnesty International says that migrant workers in Qatar have continued to face a range of abuses, “including wage theft, forced labour and exploitation, and had inadequate access to grievance and redress mechanisms.”
Amnesty also says Qatari women face discrimination in law and practice, while LGBTI people are at risk of detention due to discriminatory laws.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch says that Qatar is contributing significantly to the global climate crisis and has the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the world.
Obviously, 12 rugby teams and their staff jetting into Doha for the weekend wouldn’t help ease concerns in that regard, while air-conditioned stadiums are another major worry.
Of course, this is all about money at the end of the day. €940 million in appearance and prize money for an eight-year deal is eyewatering for a sport like rugby, in which the financial power is nothing like football and other codes. We know that rugby is not built on the most solid financial foundations, with several examples of clubs going bust in recent years. The unions who run the Nations Championship know they need to maximise their earnings if they’re to be sustainable.
Qatar is serious about becoming a major sporting destination and securing the 2022 football World Cup was its biggest achievement. That tournament featured exciting football but the final reviews weren’t glowing. The 42‘s Gavin Cooney wrote that all of the money and on-pitch drama couldn’t mask Qatar’s “crass, callous contempt for life itself.”
The World Aquatics Championships took place in Qatar earlier this year, the World Judo Championships went there last year, the basketball World Cup is heading there in 2027, and there has been talk of a bid for the 2036 Olympics.
With Saudi Arabia making similar moves, rugby will be another part of the trend if this deal to bring the Nations Championship finals to Qatar is confirmed.
It wouldn’t sit easily with lots of people but others feel like the ship has already sailed. They’re happy to hop aboard and be amply remunerated for it.
