OPINION – For anyone wanting to buy 2015 Rugby World Cup finals tickets, here is a warning – be prepared to sell your house and don’t expect much change from £10,000 and that’s if you can get them. For those desperate enough to buy from scalpers or unendorsed outlets, the warning is, “caveat emptor” and it serves you right if you get scammed. World cups tend to be good for business if you can get one and, for the rugby officials involved, serve as a huge boost to the ego as well as the bank balance.
Such is the cash cow that World Cups have become that nations around the world are clamouring to share in the booty of cash available to the second biggest team sport in the world. So would you be surprised if officials didn’t hesitate to call in favours if it meant landing the ‘big fish’?
There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that rugby union is ‘unclean’ or that games are being fixed but we shouldn’t forget that this is what was said about cricket and soccer only a few decades ago. The normal chestnuts were rolled out then and, should any probing questions of World Rugby be raised in the future, would be rolled out again eg; our administration and our management systems are too strong to fail etc…
Famous last words.
Here are some sobering thoughts about the human condition and our inherent propensity to cheat the system. As humans we have an evolutionary instinct for survival and to save up reserves for lean times. Most of us have the mental capacity to rationalise our behaviour if it means that we will survive or prevail in a contest for resources. The lines between right and wrong become blurred and our sense of morality – that subjective sense of what is good and bad, is often lost in the race to survive and prosper.
Of course there are many psycho and sociopaths who have absolutely no empathy or moral boundaries. Unfortunately many of these types make it as top-level executives and company heads. Perish the thought that there may be one or two at the helm of World Rugby or rugby unions. Who can tell? But the fact is that some people simply do not have the capacity to discern right from wrong or to know that their small innocent gift of gratitude might constitute corruption in the wrong context. And herein lies the problem.
Corruption is big and small, innocuous and grandiose, obscene and innocent, visible and invisible. The 2011 RWC hosting is an interesting case study on the lobbying and horse-trading that took place for the hosting rights. New Zealand by all accounts was not the preferred host for that year. Most of the talk centred around the IRB among others wanting Japan to host the cup, all in the name of spreading the game globally.
It took some powerful lobbying by the NZRU and some famous ex All Black greats (Tama Umaga etc) to secure the hosting rights but the most significant fact was that NZ were supported in the vote by South Africa who “rewarded” the NZRU for their anti-apartheid support back in the 1960s and 1970s. But for South Africa, NZ would not have won the vote. Does this simple act of paying back a friend constitute corruption? The answer is that it might.
Who can say unequivocally that referees haven’t been compromised in some way during huge and costly games ie; France v All Blacks in 2007? France happened to be the cup hosts and not playing particularly well so there’s every chance they would have been eliminated at this early stage, which may have been very bad for business. Who is to say that referees were not paid off to see the All Blacks through in 2011? Of course these theories are just that, theories. But the cold, calculated arm of corruption has reached out into so many other sporting administrations so are we so safeguarded in our love for the game and our trust in the powers that be that we ignore all that could happen behind close doors?
There is a strong possibility that the USA will eventually host a rugby world cup. They have the money, infrastructure and fledgling game to justify it. However the problem may tend to rear its ugly head if a novice country with no “real” rugby history wins the hosting rights eg, China or Russia. You might even see questions rise if a country like Japan inexplicably beat the All Blacks in 2019. Questions will rightly be asked and it is times like these that the stench of corruption is strongest.
At the end of the day like other professional sports, rugby is susceptible to corruption and graft because it all boils down to politics, power and money and we know how unclean these can be. FIFA is the latest scandal, but it won’t be the last and you can bet your house on it – the same house you’ll need to sell to afford tickets to the Rugby World Cup final