Irb Maintains £48m Investment
The International Rugby Board has unveiled its financial results for 2009 maintaining a £48m investment into the development of the game worldwide in accordance with its Global Strategic Investment Programme.
In line with the experience of all major International Federations and National Rugby Unions, the IRB’s financial results for the second year of the four-year Rugby World Cup 2011 business cycle, show that gross revenues were down approximately 12% on expected figures with the impact most keenly felt in the sponsorship sector.
However, a prudent cost reduction programme across all aspects of the IRB Group has secured a reduction in operating costs of 5%, while further 5% in-line reductions for 2010 and 2011 budgets will ensure that investment continues without impacting on delivery in key areas.
Development highlights in 2009 included the funding of a High Performance centre in Samoa following the recent tsunami; a new artificial pitch surface in Tbilisi in Georgia, continued high performance funding in Argentina and the establishment of a major markets fund to invest specifically in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico.
The IRB also continued to invest in the now established and successful tournaments including the IRB Pacific Rugby Cup, ANZ Pacific Nations Cup, Americas Rugby Championship, IRB Nations Cup and the record-breaking IRB Sevens World Series.
In overall terms, the IRB anticipates total investment on strategic initiatives, union grants, tournament grants, training, education and administration of the Game of approximately £150m during the period 2009-2012 inclusive.
This is in addition to the previous cycle of strategic investment totalling £30m aimed specifically at increasing global playing standards.
The IRB’s Group financial results show a net loss for the period of £40m (as adjusted for International Financial Reporting Standards).
The IRB operates International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in line with global best practice through which the IRB is required to defer all accounting of revenues and related expenditure for RWC 2011 until the year of the event.
The net impact of this on the results for 2009 is to increase the net loss from £18m to £40m. The unadjusted loss of £18m was broadly anticipated as the majority of revenues for Rugby World Cup are ordinarily received in the latter half of the four-year cycle.
However, the IRB remains confident it can achieve a better than anticipated surplus for Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand following renewed commercial appetite and an uplift in official travel and hospitality packages.
RWCL will announce shortly a number of additional sponsors for RWC 2011 following a significant upturn in sentiment in the commercial sector.
