Welford Road omitted from World Cup venue list

Welford Road, the home of Leicester Tigers and the biggest club rugby ground in England, has been axed as a potential venue for the 2015 World Cup.

The ground, which has been Leicester’s home for 120 years, has been left off the long list of 17 stadia published by tournament organisers England Rugby 2015.

Gloucester’s Kingsholm is the only Aviva Premiership rugby ground on a list that includes Twickenham, the Olympic Stadium, Wembley, the Millennium Stadium and some of the biggest club football stadia in the country. The home grounds of Manchester United, Newcastle, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Southampton have all been included after expressing an interest in staging World Cup matches.

Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium was in the original bid document but it does not feature on the shortlist, replaced by the Olympic Stadium.

Outside of the Premier League, ER2015 have included the Amex Stadium in Brighton, Bristol City’s Ashton Gate, Pride Park in Derby, Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, Elland Road in Leeds and Stadium MK in Milton Keynes.

Critics argue the World Cup should be utilising more rugby grounds but ER2015 have to sell 2.9million tickets in order to cover the €99m guarantee owed to the International Rugby Board.

ER2015 will confirm the final list of 10-12 venues early in the new year, once the tournament match schedule has been formulated.

“We are confident that with the venues selected we will be able to reach our target of having up to 2.9 million tickets available, opening up the tournament to more people than ever before and in turn delivering the biggest and best Rugby World Cup that there has ever been,” said Andy Cosslett, England Rugby 2015 chairman.

“The process of choosing the long list of venues was very competitive and we would like to thank the venues and cities who we have met for their full co-operation, including the venues not selected.”