London emerges as leading contender to host first edition of rugby's Nations Championship finals in 2026 - after chiefs snubbed £800MILLION bid from Qatar
London has emerged as the front-runner to host the inaugural finals weekend of the new Nations Championship, after unions opted to reject a lucrative approach from Qatar.The gulf state made an offer to the game’s leading powerbrokers worth £800million over the first four instalments of the 12-team tournament – in 2026, 2028, 20230 and 2032. However, as first revealed by Mail Sport, officials eventually decided against the proposal, after agonising about the financial ramifications.Now, an alternative host city has to be identified to host six decider fixtures in the autumn of 2026 and the English capital is now a front-runner to secure the staging rights. Bill Sweeney, the chief executive of the RFU, has revealed that Twickenham and two other nearby arenas – with Wembley, Tottenham Stadium and London Stadium bound to be on the shortlist – could be chosen. ‘We’ve talked about that – Plan B, the fall-back, is potentially a London venue,’ he said. ‘You could have three matches here (Twickenham), two somewhere else and one somewhere else, in London. That would be a natural destination. Conversations are happening and have been on-going since the Qatar decision. There are other possibilities of other European venues, but London is a strong possibility.’Acknowledging that there is now a sense of urgency, he added: ‘We want to be able to go to market by the end of the year, no later than the end of first quarter next year. So, it's important we get this (decided)... it’s been in conversation a long time, so it’s important that we get it concluded.’ London is a leading contender to host the first finals weekend of the Nations Championship Chiefs rejected an £800million bid from Qatar to host the finals of the first four editions
Unions were tempted by the revenue on offer from Qatar – not least those who are in the most precarious financial position as the after-effects of the Covid lockdown era are still being felt. It is understood that officials from France and Ireland were prominent in opposing plans to take marquee fixtures to the Middle East, in line with the decisions made by so many other sports.Explaining the decision to turn down the ‘unsolicited’ bid, Sweeney said: ‘Both Six Nations and SANZAAR (representing Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) took a long time to evaluate it. There were certain aspects we were concerned with, or not entirely happy with.‘A lot of it was around the inaugural finals weekend for a tournament we think has huge potential to grow value and fan interest – perhaps it should be in a more accessible environment and maybe in an area with an established rugby market.‘It doesn’t preclude going to another foreign destination at another period in time, whether it’s ‘28, or US in ‘30, one year before the World Cup there in ‘31. The decisions were all taken for the right reasons but there’s still a commitment there with Nations Cup. We have the SANZAAR unions up here (this week), so there are a series of meetings taking place. We’ll continue that around the Nations Cup.’When pressed on whether the decision was reject the Qatari offer was solely based on logistical factors rather than any concern about human rights issues there, Sweeney added: ‘It was more about what we think is the right destination for the inaugural finals weekend. How do we give the concept the best room to breathe and what's right for the fans? That was the prevailing reason.’Meanwhile, another contentious recent decision was the one by the RFU to sell naming rights to Twickenham to insurance company Allianz, in return for a fee of more than £100m over 10 years. The re-brand of the national stadium has caused a backlash in some quarters but Sweeney claimed it is a shrewd agreement in line with a trend within rugby and big-time sport as a whole. Six Nations teams, their Rugby Championship rivals plus two other countries are invited Wembley could also welcome action if London is chosen as the host city for 2026 Qatar hosted the football World Cup in 2022 despite unrest (pictured: Lusail Stadium in Doha)‘You wouldn’t want to walk away from a very significant investment,’ he said. ‘Why haven’t we had a naming-rights partner sooner?‘You can reel them all off; all the stadiums that have naming-rights partners. It’s a really good deal – good for the game. They (Allianz) are doing it for the right reasons. The vast majority of the people we interact with understand that it’s the right deal for the game. You’ll get resistance for traditional reasons, that's wholly understandable, and it takes time to adjust.’
