Five Nations set for richer harvest

Sponsorship involvement in the international rugby arena is now big and very high profile business. If current negotiations bear fruit, that involvement will be even greater and for the first time the Five Nations Championship will be sponsored, perhaps even this season. The Five Nations sub committee responsible for sponsorship has been, and continues to have, discussions with Lloyds Bank.

Those involved are being tight lipped about the negotiations. That is understandable. If the deal comes off - and the indications are that it will - then it will mean each country involved in the championship will reap a very rich harvest.

While the sum of money involved has not been officially released, nor indeed any of the sponsorship details - we have even had a few denials - I understand that each of the five participants could get as much £1 million per annum over the next three years. That is the kind of money that will offer every inducement to all concerned and will concentrate minds in every effort to surmount any difficulties that are in the way. It would certainly be a very high profile sponsorship and agreements in that category cost a lot of money in the current climate. Changed times indeed from the days of innocence in the not so long ago.

The last decade of the 19th century was marked in rugby football by considerable acrimony that had money at the root of the difficulties. It was the time that Rugby League was born, formed basically on the issue refereed to as "broken time."

Those who stood on the platform of that issue must now be doing cartwheels of delight in the Elysian Fields. Those who stood firm on the preservation of the amateur ethic in those long gone days - and indeed since - must be wondering what happened to the game they once knew. The debates on high must be no less animated than they are here in the midst of us mortals still around in this vale of tears.

I am not in this article putting forward any arguments as to merits or otherwise of professionalism in an Irish context. It is here, we must live with it and get on with going the very best we can to protect Ireland's interests. But nothing has happened to alter my views about the ongoing difficulties and the challenges they embrace.

The greater the payments, the bigger the need for money. But paying players and coaches is just one element of the demands on the resources of unions. Ground development and maintenance, the clubs, schools, the provinces, the universities, the payments to game development officers are all essential. Marketing and sponsorship committees are now vital to the game.

The time has gone when the gate receipts at home internationals was sufficient to run the game in this and other countries. Huge extra revenue is now needed and that brings forces outside the game into the equation.

There was a time in rugby when sponsorship was considered a dirty word. Indeed so stringent were the regulations that even an award to a player from a sponsor could not be accepted. For years there was steadfast resistance to any advertisements appearing in grounds. The day the first advertisement appeared on a ground in Ireland was the start of what has been an ever increasing involvement and dependence on sponsorship.

While in an ideal world every sport would be self sufficient, that is no longer the case and sponsorship has become increasingly important to every strand of the game. That the sponsors have made an immense contribution is beyond argument.

But sponsors will stay involved only as long as they deem it beneficial to them. That, too, is understandable. But there is a danger that clubs in particular can stretch their resources too far in the expectation of money that is not available after sponsors withdraw. One club in particular in Ireland has good reason to have absorbed that lesson.

Sponsors and television are very big players in the rugby game right now and all the evidence is that their involvement is increasing. He who helps pay the bills can also of course have an input into aspects of the game's administration.

There is no doubt at all that television companies, now putting vast sums of money into the game, have a major influence on dates and kick-off times. Thus we are about to have Sunday matches in the International Championship. England's home matches will no longer be seen live on terrestrial television. That does not do very much for the propagation or promotion of the game.

What the Five Nations Committee and the individual rugby unions must do in relation to the proposed sponsorship with Lloyds Bank is balance such a sponsorship with the deals individual unions have with their own sponsors.

That has occupied the minds and the time of the union members and meetings in relation to the project continue. The unions have kept their own sponsors informed of the ongoing developments. Obviously the desire is to avoid conflict of interests. That could involve some delicate discussions and keen negotiating skills.

Some unions have different match and principal team sponsors. That is not the case with Ireland. The IRFU has a very good deal with Irish Permanent. They sponsor Ireland's home matches and are also the main team sponsors. As I understand it, that sponsorship agreement has another year to run. But the indications are that in fact the sponsorships can be accommodated within an overall championship deal with Lloyds Bank.

The England team has in recent years been sponsored by Cellnet. England's home internationals were sponsored by Save and Prosper. That agreement terminated at the end of last season. As yet no deal has been agreed, or at least announced, with new sponsors for England's home matches.

Scotland, like England, have separate sponsors for team and home matches - Famous Grouse and the Royal Bank of Scotland, respectively. Now, equating the latter sponsorship and the involvement of the proposed new championship backers may take some skill.

The Welsh have tended to have individual sponsors for their home matches.

While I am basically ignorant of the intricacies of banking, as far as I know Lloyds Bank do not have outlets in Ireland. But I do think they have involvement with the TSB.

We will await with no little interest the outcome of the negotiations in relation to the sponsorship deal for the Five Nations Championship. Like so much else in rugby in this day and age, a lot of money hangs on the outcome of the negotiations.