New World Rugby Council voting structure

My Forward Thinking column from Monday of last week received a number of inbox responses from both people I know and do not know personally. The overwhelming feedback was that the situation of the Pacific Island unions is unfortunate but they need to take action to break out of the endless cycle they are trapped in.

Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga have all had corruption scandals and other such complications which have hurt the unions’ reputations and have ultimately impacted negatively on their players and test teams. The three continue to be very strong on the field as Tier 2 competitors but others are leaving them behind in their organizational capacity.

World Rugby is drawing the line and they are to be victims. Their inability to meet the minimum standards means they will continue to lack voting rights. Also missing out will be Rugby World Cup 2015 competitors Namibia and Uruguay. Namibia misses out for the same reason as the Pacific Islanders while Uruguay is not eligible as it did not played in back-to-back Rugby World Cups in 2011 and 2o15. Russia falls in the same boat as Uruguay.

The new World Rugby Council voting structure will be a revamp but not one to redistribute power evenly. The contemporary and historic flaw will remain, meaning those with existing power will in fact get more, though a number of unions without power are to gain votes for the first time.

The new voters are to be Tier 2 unions Georgia, Romania, and the USA. Each will obtain one vote, making them equals to existing Tier 2 voters Canada and Japan. It signifies a change from two Tier 2 votes to five but is to be an overall decrease in comparable power to that of Tier 1 unions.

Founding unions Australia, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales all see their power increased from two to three votes with Argentina and Italy leaping from one vote to three in a new-look Tier 1 30-vote structure. The reason being that only the Rugby Championship and Six Nations Championships are deemed by World Rugby as being major championships.

The Tier 1 unions are thereby to have a clear majority and veto power. Between them they will carry 30 of the 47 votes and are to have support from many, albeit not all, of the regional associations. The six regional associations are to have their power doubled from one to two votes each, to carry a total of 12 votes between them.

In terms of the Americas, the region will overall have increased power on the World Rugby Council. The number of votes will rise from four at present to nine. Argentina will have three votes, Rugby Americas North and Sudamérica Rugby will have two each while Canada and the USA are to have one each.

With it the Americas will have more power on the global stage than all continents aside from Europe. Oceania will have eight, Africa five and Asia three. Europe, though, will have even greater power than at present. The Six Nations unions, alone will have 18 votes while in total Europe will have 22 votes, or 47% of all World Rugby votes.