Ahead of the Game: Six Nations facing compensation fight over £800m deal snub

In his first weekly sports news column, Matt Hughes reports on the row between the Six Nations and southern hemisphere chiefs over the Nations Championship, the value of Team GB’s new deal with Adidas, Everton’s tensions with the Premier League, and England cricket chiefs’s latest hire.

The Six Nations are facing potential demands for tens of millions in compensation from New Zealand, South Africa and Australia to play in a Nations Championship finals series after the Europeans vetoed an £800m offer to stage the event in Qatar. 

The southern hemisphere unions are particularly unhappy with France and Ireland, whose reluctance to sign up to what was billed as a Super Bowl of rugby led to the Six Nations blocking a deal worth £200m each for four events to be staged every two years in Doha from 2026.

There are also divisions within the Six Nations, as while its constitution dictates that they must vote as a bloc, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh and Scottish unions were more open to the proposal. 

The Qatari bid to host a six-match series over three days in November 2026, 2028, 2030 and 2032 had been granted a two-month exclusivity period, negotiations which have reopened bitter divisions between the northern and southern hemispheres. 

New Zealand, South Africa and Australia have all posted losses totalling tens of millions of pounds in recent years, and are all understood to have been strongly in favour of accepting Qatar’s offer.

Qatar’s bid was based on a play-off series in which the sixth-ranked southern hemisphere side after the group matches would face their European equivalent and so on, building to a Grand Final. 

With no other offers on the table at present, that could be replaced by a single Grand Final in Europe – unless the Six Nations agree to compensate the southern hemisphere or share gate receipts.

Qatar’s bid also included a guarantee of global rights to be negotiated by sports marketing agency Pitch International. Securing a replacement deal could be difficult for the unions, with the RFU failing to secure a TV rights partner for England’s Test match against Japan last month.

After rejecting the Qatari bid the unions must also begin a fresh search for sponsors. Qatar Airways’ offer to support the event as title sponsor will not stand, while other proposals from the Qatar National Bank and Qatar Energy will have to be renegotiated. 

Value of Team GB’s Adidas deal revealed

Team GB’s new sponsorship deal with Adidas announced last week is worth around £20m over eight years, although the vast majority of the funding is made up of so-called Value in Kind contributions relating to kit supply, logistics and marketing. 

The British Olympic Association will receive two cash payments of £2m from Adidas over each of the next four-year cycles before the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Games, with around £16m attributed to the VIK of the contract.

The BOA’s commercial relationship with Adidas is among the longest-running in sport, with GB athletes including gold medallists Daley Thompson and Seb Coe first wearing the iconic three stripes at the last Olympics to be held in LA in 1984. 

Rival sportswear firms are understood to have made bigger cash offers for the Team GB contract but, given the logistical complexities involved, the BOA opted to extend with Adidas. 

As part of the deal Adidas has committed to supplying training and competition kit to Team GB athletes in 52 different sports, at both senior and junior levels.

Everton oppose Premier League exec pay

Everton’s relationship with the Premier League has deteriorated to such an extent after being hit with two points deductions last season that they opposed the budget set by the top-flight’s executive for next season. 

The club have become serial rebels at Premier League shareholders’ meetings in recent months and also voted against restrictions on signing loan players from clubs in the same ownership group. 

Everton escaped relegation despite their points deductions for breaching the league’s  profitability and sustainability rules. The club declined to comment.

ECB begins search for new disciplinary chief

The England and Wales Cricket Board are recruiting a new chair of their Cricket Discipline Commission to replace Tim O’Gorman, the former Derbyshire batter who is standing down after eight years this summer. 

The independent CDC effectively acts as English cricket’s judiciary, presiding over all disciplinary cases and determining sanctions on a huge range of issues from slow over rates to serious allegations of misconduct, including racism and sexism. 

In the most high-profile case he chaired, O’Gorman’s three-person CDC acquitted former England captain Michael Vaughan on charges brought by the ECB of using racist language last year – although he also gave Yorkshire a £400,000 fine and 48-point deduction for presiding over a racist culture following the same hearing. 

The ECB’s search is being led by headhunters Parrett Laver, with the governing body hoping to recruit an experienced judge or barrister for the role.