Europe and Super Rugby agree to 2028 Club World Cup
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The creation of a Club World Cup moved one step closer to becoming a reality after European executives signed an initial agreement to start the competition in 2028.
The Times understands that the organisers of the Investec Champions Cup, European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), the northern hemisphere and South African clubs have agreed on key principles with their southern-hemisphere counterparts so it can begin in four years’ time.
The competition is not fully signed off but clubs on both sides of the globe want it to happen. “We are really motoring with it now,” a source said.
The tournament would do away with the latter stages of the Champions Cup every four years, so there would be no European champion that year. Instead, it would pitch the eight quarter-finalists against six top-ranked Super Rugby Pacific teams and two guest sides, probably from Japan.
The competition would take place in a four-week block in June, with a round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The Gallagher Premiership, Top 14 and United Rugby Championship (URC) leagues would therefore finish in May to make room for the new competition before the summer Test window opens in July.
The first edition should be played in 2028 in the northern hemisphere, after the 2027 World Cup in Australia. The next Club World Cup would be played in 2032, then 2036, with the possibility of the tournament moving outside Europe — although there is no guarantee it would as the wealthier broadcasters are based in the northern hemisphere.
The competition would therefore follow World Cup years, rather than being played in years when the British & Irish Lions go on tour, as was initially suggested.
While the concept of creating a cross-hemisphere tournament to crown the best club side in the world has been around for four years or more, executives are now actively working out the details of how it would work in practice.
Club executives from the Premiership, Top 14 and URC are all keen on the idea and have pressed EPCR to organise it.
The French clubs have shouted loudest about the need for this competition. At a meeting of all 42 European and South African clubs in November, it is understood that the Top 14 sides made it clear to the Champions Cup leadership that they wanted action.
Clubs from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands — via the Super Rugby Pacific league — are said to be on board with the concept too. It would bring vital funds to their game in a league that has struggled for relevance and clout after the South African teams departed for Europe.
Super Rugby may have restructured again by 2028 but at the moment the idea is to invite two Japanese teams from their League One — such as the Saitama Wild Knights, led by the former Australian head coach Robbie Deans — to make up the round-of-16 teams.
In a Club World Cup year the idea is that the Champions Cup pool matches will be played as normal until the stage we are at now, the quarter-finals. At that point the Champions Cup would pause; those that miss out on the quarter-finals will drop down into a ‘Super Challenge Cup’, which will become a standalone European competition.
After the end of the domestic seasons, which will be moved forward to May, those eight Champions Cup quarter-finalists would be drawn against the eight sides from Super Rugby Pacific and Japan.
Taking this year’s line-up as an example, you could therefore see Leinster face the Queensland Reds, La Rochelle play the Blues from Auckland, Northampton Saints pitched against the Hurricanes of Wellington or Harlequins versus Toshiba Brave Lupus.
There would be no “regional bias” built into the club World Cup to ensure, for example, that at least one English, South African, French, New Zealand, Australian or Pacific Island would make the latter stages. Qualification would purely be on merit.
Club executives believe it will be a blockbuster tournament which will draw new broadcast and ticket revenue that could be vital to keeping them afloat. There will be welfare concerns, though, as this will add another demand to players’ workload in post-World Cup years.
EPCR is also working on establishing a women’s Champions Cup, which could start in 2026. That date has been chosen as it follows the upcoming World Cup, held in England next year, so it could continue the momentum generated by that tournament.
Spanish and Portuguese clubs may be invited to widen the breadth of the competition. EPCR will host a conference with women’s clubs and unions in June.
