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Further Advancements for the Liga Sul Americana de Rugby have been made. South America’s professional rugby competition was born with it serving the needs of the four union South American unions in the Americas Rugby Championship – Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
Before the competition became official it expanded to include Paraguay and now Sudamérica Rugby President Sebastián Piñeyrúa has confirmed that there is to be additional involvement.
With total support from World Rugby and Americas Rugby, Piñeyrúa and Sudamérica Rugby have established 2020 to launch the Liga Sul Americana. Yet with what began as a Southern Cone entity now expanding further it may in fact be the Liga Americana de Rugby (LAR).
For 2020 teams / franchises from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay are to be involved. This sees further expansion from the initial four to now have six unions involved, Colombia being the newest.
Ongoing studies are looking to expand the net wider with both Mexico and Peru being possibilities. There is notable interest in Mexico from Rugby Americas North and World Rugby with Las Serpientes being in the new Americas Rugby Challenge ahead of the Cayman Islands.
The Americas Rugby Challenge is one tier below the Americas Rugby Championship. The inaugural competition is to involve Colombia, Guyana, Mexico and Paraguay. Peru is not involved yet is being considered for the new professional league.
Sudamérica rugby notes that the objectives of the South American professional competition are:
- Continue the exponential development that rugby is experiencing in the region.
- Aid player development so that they can compete on level terms with more developed countries in rugby terms.
- Generate a new space for our players to be able to improve their performance, to be able to play in their place of origin and form part of rugby’s elite in Latin America.
- Continue growing developing programs and strengthening competition in the region, and spreading the values of rugby so that they can be shared by more people.
The LAR is to function with a franchise system but with a strong involvement from unions. The unions from each country are to retain sporting control; the commercial partners will not be able to access greater than 49% of the entities.
