This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Final hosting rights to be awarded by World Rugby in May next year
USA and the game’s global body enter into exclusive talks on hosting men’s Rugby World Cup in 2031
World Rugby has announced England and Australia as ‘preferred candidate’ countries to host the 2025 women’s World Cup and 2027 men’s tournament, respectively.
Final hosting rights will be awarded by the game’s global governing body in May next year after what are revisions to the Rugby World Cup host selection process.
World Rugby also confirmed that the USA will enter into exclusive targeted dialogue regarding the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2031.
“We must continue to keep up with the fast pace of change in our current world and provide value for our future host nations and unions,” said World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin.
“Flexibility is a necessity to ensure good governance and to have successful sustainable men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups. We will do that while maintaining the personality of our events and our commitment to having players and fans at the heart of everything we do.”
Rugby Australia chairman, Hamish McLennan, added: “We look forward to working with our colleagues at World Rugby over the coming months to develop the model for Rugby World Cup 2027. This is an exciting opportunity to shape a tournament which will continue the growth of our great game across Australia, the Pacific and globally and showcase our country to the world.”
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Bill Sweeney, the chief executive of England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU), added: “We are delighted to have been awarded preferred candidate status for Rugby World Cup 2025.
“Our ambition is to stage the best-attended women’s RWC ever, with nationwide qualifiers and a sell-out final at Twickenham Stadium.
“We are looking forward to working with World Rugby and government to make this happen. We will now focus all our bidding efforts on securing these games.”
Meanwhile, the RFU has revealed revenue for the financial year 2020/21 stood at UK£120 million (US$159 million) less than pre-coronavirus forecasts.
The English rugby union body’s reported revenue totalled UK£97 million (US$129 million), down from UK£167 million (US$222 million) in the previous year, with an underlying loss to reserves of UK£21.3 million (US$28.3 million), which is UK£30 million (US$40 million) worse than pre-Covid forecasts.
Financial stability has been secured through cost cutting measures including 119 redundancies, a debenture donation programme and emergency financial schemes made available by the UK government.
Support from the coronavirus job retention scheme totalled UK£2.3 million (US$3 million) and UK£2.25 million (US$2.9 million) was received from the business rates relief scheme.
Professional rugby investment in the year was UK£40.3 million (US$53.6 million) compared to UK£66.4 million (US$88.3 million) in the prior year.
Sweeney said: “This 150th year of the RFU has been an immensely challenging one for the union and our sport.
“We have worked harder than ever before to support the professional and community game though the pandemic, with a clearly focused strategic plan to ensure we deliver real benefit and support to the game.
“As we emerge out of Covid, the RFU will continue to take a leadership role in reshaping and improving the game for the benefit of all involved.”
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