Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sam Ackerman: Sport commentator rejects international concerns over R360

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Sam Ackerman: Sport commentator rejects international concerns over R360 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Rugby unions around the globe are banding together against R
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: three sixty unions from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: They're all saying, you can't play for Mike Tindall's new
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: outfit and then go play for your country. Sam Ackman
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  Speaker 1: Sports commentated with me this morning. Sam, Good morning, morning,
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  Speaker 1: Royan Hey. Critics are saying, some are saying that this
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  Speaker 1: will be the death of rugby union. Is it a
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  Speaker 1: bit overcooked massively?
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  Speaker 2: They just need to take a little breath and remember
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  Speaker 2: that professional sport does things like this quite often in
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  Speaker 2: the number of sports, and they seem to still be
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  Speaker 2: thriving and going on. Rugby league was ripped apart by
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  Speaker 2: a civil war in nineteen ninety five and it's producing
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  Speaker 2: some of the biggest numbers the sports ever produced. Now
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  Speaker 2: Goalscot the live tour running separately to the PGA that
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  Speaker 2: is supposed to employ that sport but not happening as well.
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  Speaker 2: What this is is a bunch of unions, powerful unions
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  Speaker 2: they used to have in their own way, circling the wagons.
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  Speaker 2: I don't blame them for doing so, but the fact
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  Speaker 2: of the matter is there is an entity that we
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  Speaker 2: know very little about talking about playing stupid money for
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  Speaker 2: these athletes and good on the athlete, so that anyone
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  Speaker 2: who ends up going to this and making that kind
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  Speaker 2: of professional athletes, that's what they're to do. They're there
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  Speaker 2: to make a living, would a plumber, as would a lawyer,
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  Speaker 2: as would a journalist. Whoever, if there's great money is there,
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  Speaker 2: it's there to take. So I think calling it the
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  Speaker 2: potential death of rugby is getting a little hysterical, drawing.
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  Speaker 1: On the Indian Premier League, as you mentioned the live
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  Speaker 1: Golf thing. In fact, I see that the former lawyer
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  Speaker 1: for Live Golf is involved in this. Where are they
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  Speaker 1: getting all this money from?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's the four billion dollar question, is it right?
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  Speaker 2: It's as far as where things are on transparency, there
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  Speaker 2: is no We don't even have public figures speaking of this.
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  Speaker 2: They're talking about starting a competition next year with no
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  Speaker 2: public plans about who the teams are, where they are
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  Speaker 2: any sign names. It all feels a little on the
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  Speaker 2: dicey side. Back to the day, this is no bigger
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  Speaker 2: threat to New Zealand rugby than French rugby is, or
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  Speaker 2: Rugby League is, or if the NFL decided do you
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  Speaker 2: know what, we want really good kickers and we're going
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  Speaker 2: to go to New Zealand and take the goalkickers out
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  Speaker 2: of every super team. There's always options to go other
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  Speaker 2: places and good money to do so. The real threat
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  Speaker 2: is if too many take up the offer. What does
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  Speaker 2: that mean for New Zealand and their international eligibility rules Poby.
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  Speaker 2: For those who have strict rules, it's harder to apply.
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  Speaker 2: But I find interesting Australia, for example, South Africa two
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  Speaker 2: unions that are happy to pack from overseas. They picked
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  Speaker 2: their Wallabies or their spring Bloxer anywhere they want to
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  Speaker 2: play except R three sixty. Why because they have no
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  Speaker 2: control over what's going on there. They will have to
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  Speaker 2: one day down the line if our three sixty gets
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  Speaker 2: off the ground, if it goes well, it's something they
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  Speaker 2: need to reconsider right now. International rugby is their bargainingship
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  Speaker 2: and they're using it.
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  Speaker 1: And does this all have to be signed off by
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  Speaker 1: World Rugby And if so, what is their criteria for
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  Speaker 1: doing that now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, World Rugby is an entity as much like FIFA.
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  Speaker 2: They have the greater interest of the game at hard
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  Speaker 2: as long as it works in with their interests. So
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  Speaker 2: as long as that world rugby is going to be
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  Speaker 2: a positioned that they can make enough money from or
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  Speaker 2: something that they can work with, well, then they're prepared
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  Speaker 2: to talk right now. Because everything is so loosey goosey,
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  Speaker 2: there's no rules around it. They're certainly not going to
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  Speaker 2: tell the unions that they can't stop these players from
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  Speaker 2: being picked from over there because your own, your own
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  Speaker 2: individual eligibility rules. The real problem comes when you see
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  Speaker 2: some saying well, if you go to three sixty, you
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  Speaker 2: won't be welcomed back. Well, it's professional sport. That's like
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  Speaker 2: saying back in the day, if you had converted to
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  Speaker 2: rugby league, then you could never go back to rugby
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  Speaker 2: union or vice versa. Those walls are done. People need
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  Speaker 2: to kind of move past that and understand it's an
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  Speaker 2: opportunity for these athletes. Listney's yonders. We want to see
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  Speaker 2: the best players planning for the All Blacks and be
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  Speaker 2: available without question, but the same token if they can't
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  Speaker 2: match the money it's being offered, can you really blame them?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely not, samppreciate that. Sam Ackham and sports commentator with
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  Speaker 1: us For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen
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