The EPCR has confirmed that a Rugby World Club Cup will take place in 2028 following unanimous agreement from across leagues and unions.
Such a tournament has long been mooted with communications ramping up last year, and now EPCR chairman Dominic McKay confirmed that the green light had been given with the competition scheduled to take place every four years.
"This is something we've spoken about at EPCR for the last two or three years – we’ve been trying to work our way through this project to see if we can deliver it.
"And over the last few days we’ve had great meetings with our Board, great meetings with our General Assembly, who represent the three leagues and stakeholders from seven unions, and everyone is unanimous about wanting to deliver a World Club Cup – through EPCR."
The tournament organisers of the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup – which will continue to take place – will deliver the Rugby World Club Cup project.
Sixteen teams will qualify – eight from the Investec Champions Cup and the remainder drawn from Super Rugby Pacific and Japan.
The tournament will launch in June 2028, elevating the Investec Champions Cup knock-out rounds to the Rugby World Club Cup and supercharging the closing stages of the EPCR Challenge Cup.
"The Investec Champions Cup is the greatest club competition in the world, and we’re going to continue to protect that, nurture it and develop it further. We’ve got some ambitious plans for both the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup, which we’ll unveil over the coming weeks," McKay continued.
"We want to create this World Club Cup proposition in 2028 and 2032 with our friends from the South. We have these incredible competitions that we own and operate, and we want to find a way to elevate them further and bring in teams from Australia, from New Zealand, from Japan, and we’ll do that through the World Club Cup."
Watch the Champions Cup final, Northampton v Bordeaux, on Saturday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
