The lucrative Breakaway League, which is expected to attract many of the world’s best players, could reportedly hold its first competition within the next two years.
This ambitious proposal has the support of a number of wealthy investors in the UK and US. It has also been compared to LIV Golf, a controversial series sponsored by Saudi Arabia that has attracted many top players.
Around 200 players have been targeted, with many high-profile names believed to have already been offered expensive salaries.
If all goes according to plan in the coming months, the first competition could take place in the summer of 2026, according to the Daily Mail.
Reports suggest that several top players have been offered pre-contract deals, which could involve complex buyouts from existing clubs. However, in order for the pre-contract to become active, several important conditions must be met by September next year.
The funding process will reportedly require eight franchises to be sold, international TV deals arranged and 200 players signed up. If these conditions are met, the way will be cleared for the first event to be held in 2026.
Former England center Mike Tindall is said to have been consulted during the planning process, having previously been critical of rugby’s current structure.
He recently highlighted the value of the franchise system on his The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, saying: “The problem is that in 1995, no one went to the NFL and said, ‘We’re going to do this. What are you going to do? Do you do it?’
“They probably said your head office should run everything, sell all franchises and sponsorships as one company and distribute them equally across the club. Now we are trying to complement.
“We came here because it had never really been set up from the start (since rugby turned professional). We shuffled the deck a lot and people said, ‘Oh my God, we can make money with this.’
“Looking back now, the only thing that really worked was to have some type of central league selling the rights to the whole league.”
The Breakaway competition will be held in various venues around the world with sponsors hoping to transform club rugby in a similar way to cricket’s IPL.
If the league goes ahead it will change the face of the sport as we know it and risks creating a major rift with World Rugby and its national unions.
