McKay confirms Rugby World Club Cup to launch in 2028
- EPCR Media
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
As the 30th season of EPCR competitions continues to bring the rugby party to Cardiff, EPCR Chairman Dominic McKay has confirmed the unanimous agreement from across leagues and unions to deliver a first Rugby World Club Cup in 2028.
McKay spoke ahead of the EPCR Challenge Cup Final, in which Bath Rugby beat Lyon Olympique Universitaire 37-12 to lift their first EPCR trophy in 17 years.
With the very best of European club rugby on display over the weekend at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, culminating in Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup Final between Northampton Saints and Union Bordeaux-Bègles, McKay reflected on the future of the competitions and the green light given to the tournament – mooted for the last few years -to decide the best club in the world.
“It’s great to be in Cardiff celebrating the 30th season of the Investec Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup,” McKay said.
“We’ve had some great discussions over the course of the weekend talking about the future of our sport and particularly some exciting projects that relate to EPCR.
“One of those projects is the Rugby World Club Cup.
“This is something we’ve spoken about at EPCR for the last two or three years – we’ve been trying to work our way through this project to see if we can deliver it.
“And over the last few days we’ve had great meetings with our Board, great meetings with our General Assembly, who represent the three leagues and stakeholders from seven unions and everyone is unanimous about wanting to deliver a World Club Cup – through EPCR.”
The tournament organisers of the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup – which will continue to take place – will deliver the Rugby World Club Cup project.
Sixteen teams will qualify – eight from the Investec Champions Cup and the remainder drawn from Super Rugby Pacific and Japan.
The tournament, which will thus feature the world’s very best clubs and superstar players, will launch in June 2028, elevating the Investec Champions Cup knock-out rounds to the Rugby World Club Cup and supercharging the closing stages of the EPCR Challenge Cup.
“The Investec Champions Cup is the greatest club competition in the world and we’re going to continue to protect that, nurture it and develop it further. We’ve got some ambitious plans for both the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup, which we’ll unveil over the coming weeks.
“And, to elevate the whole of professional club rugby, we want to create this World Club Cup proposition in 2028 and 2032 with our friends from the South. We have these incredible competitions that we own and operate, and we want to find a way to elevate them further and bring in teams from Australia, from New Zealand, from Japan and we’ll do that through the World Club Cup.
“So, once every four years, starting off in 2028, we’re going to bring the greatest clubs from the southern hemisphere to battle it out against the greatest clubs in the northern hemisphere – and who wouldn’t want to find out who the greatest club in the world is as a consequence of that.
“We’re so excited about this as a project. Our stakeholders, our leagues and our unions are so excited about delivering a World Club Cup. We’ll be sharing more information over the course of the summer and we’ll do that in conjunction with our friends from the south.
“To reassure everyone, we’ve thought about this from a player’s perspective, from a fan’s perspective, and from a future fan’s perspective. We believe the fans of the future want to see the greatest clubs come together. They already have that in Europe and South Africa for the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup, so we want to broaden the family a bit further. It promises to be absolutely box office.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled that our stakeholders are supporting us and we look forward to sharing more information with the players and our fans in the coming weeks and months.”