Rwc 2007 Set To Make £90m Profit

This year’s Rugby World Cup held in France is set to make a profit of £90m
according to the International Rugby Board.

The IRB predicts it is set to improve on the £64m achieved at the 2003
tournament in Australia with sponsorship and TV rights sales all on the rise.

Commented IRB communications manager Greg Thomas: ‘We are on target to record
a profit of £90m and all that money will be going back into the game. We’ve had
full stadiums, a lot of support and the French have really embraced the
tournament.’

There has been talk of the IRB reducing the World Cup tournament from 20 to
16 teams for the 2011 competition in New Zealand.

But Thomas stated that the IRB will not abandon the supposed lesser nations.

‘The small developing unions have really made their mark. We have been
investing in them over the past few years and expected to see an improvement by
2011 or 2015.

‘But it just goes to show if you put conditioning into these unions and
invest the money in the right way, they can make an impact. In all fairness to
the smaller unions they have shown they can mix it with the bigger unions.

‘But we won’t make a decision now, we will have a review and go away and look
at this properly.

‘Before the tournament a lot of people said the tournament was too long and
should involve 16 unions and now they are saying 20 – it will be quite a
decision we will have to come to.’