Winning Champions Cup players should get mega cash bonuses
Sometimes I think Investec Champions Cup matches with something on the line could do with even more jeopardy.
Bordeaux Begles, Bath Rugby, Leinster and RC Toulon will battle it out this weekend across the Atlantic and Aviva Stadiums.
But what if there was a briefcase full of cash pitchside for the winners of each of the semi-finals?
When the Champions Cup reaches these latter stages, where matches are played with home advantage but not at the home stadium of either team, revenues generated do not go to the host team and are instead distributed via the competition organisers to the three competing leagues – the URC, Top 14 and Prem.
I don’t think this is the right way to go about making every moment matter.
Champions Cup cash claims
Instead we should be giving the winning players bonuses and the winning clubs a lump sum that they can pocket instantly. The same should happen in the final but with even bigger numbers.
The billionaire backers of the French Top 14, the unions involved in the United Rugby Championship and the long-term investors in the Prem need to be encouraged to stay put amid a changing global landscape, across sport and otherwise.
Moreso with new capital heading into the English game. At the start of next season we could see Red Bull and Sir James Dyson joined by Black Knight, a consortium of investors featuring Oscar winner Michael B Jordan that controls Premier League club AFC Bournemouth.
They clearly see something in the sport, and the current pinnacle of that is the Champions Cup – that’s until a potential Club World Cup comes into play in the coming years.
But the sport must continue to make the case for rugby, even as new capital comes into the sport ahead of a form of franchising reshaping the Prem by the end of the decade.
The point is this: we want the best players playing in Europe, and we want those players seeing rewards for putting their bodies on the line in the most high-profile, adrenaline-fuelled matches every year.
Money, money, money
Those matches are in the Champions Cup, especially at the semi-final stage when there is an Anglo-French encounter and giants of France and Ireland facing off across the Irish sea.
Centrally distributed revenues can still exist within the Champions Cup as part of a wider model to fund club rugby across the participating clubs, but increasing the jeopardy of these final-four ties by waving a wad of cash in front of the likes of Finn Russell or Louis Bielle-Biarrey would be just reward for the consistent performances they continue to churn out while risking their future on the pitch.
The Champions Cup is a great example of rugby at its best, especially in the latter stages. EPCR should recognise that – and boast about it.
For the record, I think we will see both so-called home teams winning this weekend to set up a showdown in Bilbao between Bordeaux and Leinster. That would be an epic finale to the season.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11