A blunt message to the All Blacks from the IRB - we can do without you. It follows the complaint from New Zealand Rugby Union chief Steve Tew over the way international rugby finances are carved up - and his threat to withdraw the All Blacks from the next World Cup. "Does the world cup need the All Blacks? Everyone is replaceable," IRB boss Mike Miller told Radio Sport host Tony Veitch. Mr Miller points out it's up to the IRB board how the cash is carved up - and Steve Tew is on the board. "I have huge sympathy for everyone. It's a very tough economic situation at the moment. All the unions are suffering. It is very difficult. We are looking at the issues, we are working with the New Zealand Rugby Union, the Australian Union and everyone else," he says. Mr Miller says it will be up to New Zealand and Australia to persuade the other unions of any change. He points out Tew and his Australian counterpart are on the IRB council and are involved in all the decisions on where the money goes. "They ultimately will decide, it's a democracy, whether they get exactly what they want or not, it depends if they can persuade the other council members," he says. At the same time as he lays down the law to the NZRU, the IRB boss is giving New Zealand's hosting of Rugby World Cup 2011 10 out of 10. Mike Miller says the tournament's been the best ever. "I've travelled around the country, everyone has bought into it. The stadiums have been full. The standard of play has been better than it was four years ago," he says. Mr Miller says the tournament won't be the best ever in terms of finance, but the IRB always knew that would be the case. http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/rugby/wo...64/all-blacks-receive-blunt-message-from-irb/ What do you think. Should we kick them out or do they (NZ & Austarlia) have a point that the money earned by the IRB should remain theirs to do as thay please?
Dont like the sound of the Miller guy ! I dont really understand the issue or what the Kiwis and Aussies want and why! What I do know is a world cup without the AB`s loses a hell of a lot of the attraction !
This could take a while but I'll try. The main jist appears that the IRB takes the majority of the money earned to run the IRB but does not disperse as much of it to the unions as before. When the WC was last in Australia, Australia made an AUD $35m profit but the latest one in NZ will LOOSE at least NZD $40m (AUD $32m). The host only gets revenue from ticket sales. The IRB takes ALL the sponsorship money & stops ALL countries from accepting sponsorship during the tournament except for logos on the shirts etc. It means that poorer countries like the pacific islands etc will no longer be able to afford to compete at future tournaments. NZ & Aust want the money to be spread out amounst all countries more fairly. The cost of running the IRB as a percentage of revenue has more than doubled since the last tournament in Australia so the question is......Who's spending all the extra money & why does it cost so much more to administer the game. The cynics would suggest thereâre just following FIFA's lead
Thanks mate ! well in that case NZ and Australia and the islanders should breakaway from the greedy bastards at the IRB , let em pay for there own tickets ,airfares and piss ups! England and host of other nations should breakaway from Fifa too!
Agree with you on both points but as we both know it'll never happen. They all need the revenue from tours to run the game in their own countries. Nepotism alive & well at best. I'm not as ITK as I used to be but I can tell you that leading up to the WC when last at Twickers they had so many snoughts in the troff that even a marketing manager with Aus couldn't get a ticket to the final as they'd already GIVEN away the 8'500 freebies!!
