Qatar Airways has agreed a deal worth up to £80m to become title sponsors of the new Nations Championship in a move that underlines rugby union’s determination to follow other sports in securing investment from the Middle East.
It was revealed in October that Qatar had been chosen to stage the second finals series of the Nations Championship, in 2028, and the national airline has now come on board as headline sponsors. The eight-year deal will cover the qualifying matches and finals series for the first four editions of the new competition running from 2026 until 2034.
Qatar Airways is fully owned by the Qatari government which, as with the 2022 football World Cup, is leading the project. The airline has already announced a deal as title sponsor of this summer’s British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.
Qatar’s move into rugby is partly an acknowledgment that their neighbours Saudi Arabia will dominate the football landscape over the next decade after winning the right to stage the 2034 World Cup and agreeing several sponsorship and broadcasting deals with Fifa. Saudi money is also increasingly prominent in boxing, Formula One, golf and tennis, but the Kingdom has not followed up on initial talks about investing in rugby.
The inaugural Nations Championship will take place next year in a joint venture run by the Six Nations and southern hemisphere Sanzaar unions, with assistance from World Rugby. The Six Nations teams will play three matches away and three at home against the Sanzaar nations and two others – expected to be Japan and Fiji – in July and November followed by a final series.
Under the proposed tournament structure the sixth-ranked European team after the six group matches will play their equivalent from the southern hemisphere, with fifth facing fifth and so on, leading to a grand final to determine the Nations Championship winners. All the final series matches will take place in the same city, with Doha to stage the six playoff games in 2028 after London hosts the first event next year.
Qatar had wanted to stage the first four Nations Championship finals, but that proposal was rejected by the Irish and French unions due to uncertainty over attendances and concerns over the country’s human rights record. The heads-of-terms agreement is understood to give Qatar the option of staging the event again in either 2030 or 2032 however, if certain revenue targets are met.
An announcement about the staging agreement has been delayed by ongoing discussions between the Six Nations and Sanzaar over the revenue split and the allocation of prize money and appearance fees.
Six Nations and Sanzaar are also continuing to hold talks with other commercial partners before confirming the Qatar Airways deal. The size of the deal will make it the biggest title sponsorship in world rugby, with each Nations Championship valued at around £20m, dwarfing the £12m sponsorship value of the Guinness Six Nations, which covers both the men’s and women’s competitions.
Securing a global brand is also regarded as significant boost for the Nations Championship. The Rugby Championship in the southern hemisphere, in contrast, does not have a global sponsor and is funded by several smaller regional deals.
A Six Nations spokesperson said that they do not engage in comment or speculation on commercial matters.
