Sports minister raised World Cup final in phone call to rugby boss

Rugby officials have been warned that the Victorian government expects an elite rugby union team to play in the state, with the future of the Melbourne Rebels to be decided on Friday as ministers weigh up a bid to stage the 2027 Rugby World Cup final.

The revelation comes just days before creditors are due to vote on whether to back a rescue deal to save the Melbourne Rebels or to allow the Super Rugby club to enter liquidation.

The future of the Rebels will be decided in a creditors meeting on Friday. Credit: Rugby Australia

Influential figures in Victorian sport, business and politics – including former Rebels chairman Paul Docherty – had been working towards hosting the 2027 Rugby World Cup final since before Australia even submitted a formal bid.

A senior government source, not authorised to speak publicly as the conversations were confidential, confirmed on Wednesday that Sports Minister Steve Dimopolous phoned Rugby Australia chair Daniel Herbert late last week to discuss the implications of hosting the final at the MCG if there was no Victorian team in Super Rugby.

The source said no decisions had been reached and discussions were ongoing.

Dimopolous would not confirm whether the state would walk away from the bid to stage the World Cup final if the Rebels were liquidated.

“The government supports rugby union remaining in our state and expects Rugby Australia to commit to a team at the elite level of the sport in Victoria,” he said in a statement.

“Rugby Victoria and our elite rugby union team, the Melbourne Rebels, have deep community roots and successful programs that support and inspire the community from the grassroots level up to the elite.”

If the state government walks away from bidding to host the final of the international event, it would pave the way for NSW to snare it. The Melbourne Cricket Club, which operates the MCG, was contacted for comment.

A Rugby Australia spokesperson said discussions with the state government about both the future of the Rebels and World Cup final were ongoing.

“These are two different matters. The Melbourne Rebels is a unique situation around the future viability of the club and the financial sustainability of professional rugby in Australia. The other is around the placement of major global sporting events in Melbourne,” they said.

World Rugby, the majority partner in a joint venture with host Rugby Australia, banks most of its revenue from the Rugby World Cup every four years. It claims the men’s World Cup is the third-biggest sporting event in world sport, and is forecast to have a $2.2 billion impact on the Australian economy, and attract 200,000 international visitors.

World Rugby is ultimately responsible for selecting the finals host and are handling the negotiations.

Rebels director Georgia Widdup on Wednesday thanked the Victorian government for their “strong support”.

“We look forward to working with Rugby Australia as we seek to establish the women’s and men’s team at their exciting new home in Tarneit in Melbourne’s West,” she said.

“We agree with Rugby Australia that the Melbourne Rebels need a sustainable financial model to set them up for future, and we have that with the consortium plan. It is a credible and common-sense plan.”

Widdup and other Rebels consortium members, including her father and business heavyweight Leigh Clifford, met with Rugby Australia officials on Tuesday to outline what their rescue deal would look like.

It was the first time the parties met since Rugby Australia accused the Rebels directors of misusing funds meant for tax.

In a statement, RA claimed: “[The Rebels] ... misused these funds and did not pay them to the ATO, which was the intended purpose.”

Widdup disputed the claim last week, telling this masthead: “RA did our payroll, and on all occasions they knew the amounts they were paying us to pay the players were insufficient.”

A source with direct knowledge of Tuesday’s meeting said the discussions were focused on detailing the plan for the Rebels to pump $30 million into the club and share the Wyndham Regional Football Facility in Tarneit with the Western United A-League Teams.

Rugby Australia has made no public statement about whether it will support the deal since it was approved by administrators but had previously outlined its support for the club to enter liquidation.

If creditors – owed a total of $23 million – vote against the rescue deal on Friday, Rebels directors, including Widdup, could face personal liability of $16.8 million for the club’s extensive losses, according to an administrator’s report that made findings that the team had been trading while insolvent from at least 2018.

With Iain Payten