Lessons for World Rugby from the FIFA Soccer World Cup

The following video explores key structural and financial lessons that World Rugby can adopt from FIFA to expand the sport globally, specifically looking toward the 2031 Rugby World Cup in the United States. While acknowledging FIFA’s historical issues with corruption, the creator emphasizes that soccer’s governing blueprint excels at growing its audience and supporting smaller sports nations.

The video was made by Peter Stemmet. He creates all the content for the YouTube channel Front Row Rugby.

• • Strategic World Cup Seeding:
    FIFA structures its World Cup draws to prevent top teams from meeting until the semifinals, ensuring blockbuster concluding matches. Conversely, Rugby’s seeding model often pits the world’s highest-ranked squads against each other as early as the quarterfinals.
  • Proportional Revenue Distribution:
    FIFA leverages massive tournament profits to financially back local development programs in smaller, developing soccer nations. In contrast, World Rugby is criticized for paying “lip service” rather than offering sustainable financial pipelines to developing countries like Namibia, Brazil, or Romania.
  • Breaking the “Closed Shop” Mentality:
    Rugby remains heavily isolated within its traditional strongholds—the Six Nations and The Rugby Championship. Global expansions like the upcoming 24-team tournament in Australia are a start, but the sport still struggles with fair schedule distribution and accommodating rising tier-2 teams.
• • Capitalizing on the US Market:
    Highlighting record-breaking US television viewership from the recent 48-team FIFA World Cup, the host underlines that the 2031 Rugby World Cup represents a massive, make-or-break opportunity for the sport to break into the American market and build a true global footprint.