United States to host Rugby World Cup and pledges not to ‘do a Qatar’

The groundbreaking 2031 Rugby World Cup in the USA may have to move to July and August to avoid a clash with the NFL after organisers vowed not to “do a Qatar”.

World Rugby’s council rubber-stamped the decision to award the next five men’s and women’s World Cups at a meeting in Dublin on Thursday with Australia awarded the 2027 tournament, 24 years after hosting the 2003 competition in which England were crowned champions.

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The USA has been awarded the men’s competition in 2031 and the women’s tournament in 2033 with organisers optimistic of generating $1bn in revenue from ticket sales alone. By comparison, the 2019 World Cup in Japan made around £350m from ticketing income.

With the NFL season traditionally beginning in early September, however, World Cup organisers are wary of failing to capture the imagination of the American public with any clash.

Citing the Fifa men’s World Cup which takes place in November and December in Qatar, in the middle of the season for the major European leagues, World Rugby confirmed a move to the summer is likely. That in turn, however, could cause problems for the dates of the 2030-31 season for domestic leagues and could see players running out in sweltering temperatures depending on the host cities.

“If you think about the previous Rugby World Cup in Australia back in 2003, it was slightly later than what is now our World Cup window,” said World Rugby’s chief executive Alan Gilpin. “The US would probably ideally be slightly earlier. And again, what we now need to do with the certainty we’ve got from today, is spend the time thinking about what the benefits and challenges are in that.