IRB face players’ revolt over World Cup profits

THE International Rugby Board (IRB) could face a revolt by players over its refusal to share some of the profits from this year’s World Cup, a leading players’ representative has warned.

International Rugby Players Association (IRPA) chairman Tony Dempsey said players wanted the IRB to follow the lead of other major sports, including the soccer and cricket World Cups, by sharing their massive windfalls with the competitors.

“They (the IRB) are out of touch with modern sporting trends,” said Dempsey.

“They want the players to sign participation forms consenting to the use of their names and images for a whole range of things such as videos and books.

“But the only thing they’re getting in return is the chance to play in the World Cup.”

Dempsey said he had written to the IRB in January asking for a meeting in order to sort out the intellectual property issue, but was told to take up the issue with individual unions.

“We really need to sit down and have a proper dialogue with them because we’ve told them this problem is not going to go away,” said Dempsey.

“They are the rulemakers so it’s inappropriate for them to say deal with the unions, whose own rules are generally more favourable than what the IRB is offering.”

Dempsey, whose association represents players from all the major rugby playing nations, said the matter needed to be sorted out before the player contracts were due to be signed on July 31.

The former Australian international said he was confident the IRB would reconsider its position.

“I’d rather not go down that path now,” he said. “We’re just hoping that the IRB takes a sensible and mature approach to this issue.”

As things stand, Australia is set to be the big winner at this year’s World Cup after convincing the International Rugby Board (IRB) to give it a bigger slice of the tournament profits.

The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) was originally told that its share as the host nation would be capped at A$45 million (US$27 million).

The ARU lobbied the IRB to lift its ceiling after it sold more than one million tickets, ensuring the initial profit forecasts would be exceeded.

ARU managing director John O’Neill said yesterday that the IRB has now agreed to lift the cap on profits. O’Neill said that under the new arrangement the ARU would be allowed to keep the first A$31 million profit from the tournament plus 30 percent of any other surplus with the IRB retaining the rest.

“It was resolved to remove the cap so the formula now is that we’re able to keep the first A$31 million of the tournament surplus and then everything above A$31 million is split 70:30,” O’Neill said.

“Before, once we got to A$45 million they got 100 cents in the dollar.”