World Rugby Chair Election 2024 – Who Is In The Running?

Three candidates will contest the election for the World Rugby Chair at the Interim Meeting of Council in Dublin, Ireland, on 14 November 2024. The week before will see the Asia Rugby EXCO meeting take place with Presidential elections on the line.

Both will have huge impacts on rugby globally and in the region over the next 4-5 year cycle and we look at who is running for the top job in rugby and what the main visions are for the future of the sport.

World Rugby Chair Election Candidates 2024

Sir Bill Beaumont is the outgoing Chair after being in the role for eight years. The Englishman had replaced Bernard Lapasset in July 2016 and can no longer stand having served a maximum of two terms.

One of the other candidates also dropped out of the race early on. John Jeffrey was forced to withdraw from the race in September 2024 after failing to win the backing of his own Scottish Rugby Union. It was reported the former Scotland flanker blamed “petty politics” and said that he felt “upset, bitter and betrayed” – he resigned from all of his roles immediately at the time.

The three remaining candidates are:

• Brett Robinson (Australia) – nominated by Australia and seconded by England
• Abdelatif Benazzi (France) – nominated by France and seconded by South Africa
• Andrea Rinaldo (Italy) – nominated by Italy and seconded by Ireland

If the candidate’s nominations aren’t enough to give a clear indication of which Rugby Unions are backing which candidates, we have also tried to read the manifestos of each candidate. To be fair, similar themes run through each of their running platforms but it will be the deals made behind the scenes that will determine the most likely outcome.

All three have made an appeal to the “emerging’ nations in wanting to expand the sport, and promote inclusivity and revenue streams – but these are hardly new platforms we have seen candidates run on previously. 

Dr. Brett Robinson

The Australian and former Wallaby has the public backing of New Zealand Rugby 

Robinson has a strong background in rugby advocacy and his campaign has centred on promoting rugby’s growth in the Pacific and Asia, with an emphasis on innovation and competitive equality within the sport.

In his manifesto he says, “The challenges facing rugby require experienced leadership, capable of facilitating strategic choices and judicious resource allocation. To progress our vision of being a global game for all, World Rugby needs to collaborate with its members and regions to drive a unity of purpose of growing our game and driving stronger commercial outcomes.

As Chair, my objective will be to embody the values of rugby and inspire transparent and inclusive leadership, which positions rugby to reach its potential on the global sporting stage.”

NZR Chair Patsy Reddy said they felt he brought a progressive approach and modern skill set that is required to lead the sport globally.

“Brett is a highly regarded and trusted leader with the strong integrity and commercial expertise that is absolutely critical to leading the future success of the sport…Rugby requires someone who knows what the issues and opportunities are, is focused on delivering outcomes for all member unions and, importantly, represents the collective best interests of the entire game.”

Robinson laid out a plan that highlights the following commitments:

• Ensuring financial stability and sustainability.
• Exploring new growth markets whilst recognising the importance of the core markets.
• Ensuring innovative competition formats & accessible locations that will increase audience engagement and commercial outcomes.
• Continue to innovate and evolve the laws of the game.
• Have a disciplined governing body.

Abdelatif Benazzi

Abdelatif Benazzi is a former French international player with 78 caps who also captained Les Bleus. His manifesto has seen him announce a strategic vision and expand rugby’s global appeal under the themes of  “Innovation, Inclusion and Unity”.

He is reported to want to grow the game beyond the traditional unions and help create new competitions while advancing into new territories in an attempt to increase revenues in rugby.

He told the Irish Independent news outlet, “We need to open minds for new territories, new governance and transparency around that. That’s the deal I’m interested in, and that’s why I put my candidacy in…A new strategy around World Cups, not staying in the same situation as the past.

That’s the reason I’m very excited every day. I sent my manifesto in seven languages, I spoke to countries that don’t even have a vote like Spain, Portugal, and a couple of countries in Africa. They love rugby, but we don’t have proper democracy because it’s closed, conservative and all the time the big unions vote on everything.“It’s not a big risk, it’s just the new world. You have to believe in the future, work together and unite.”

The self-proclaimed pillars of his candidacy are:

• Increasing visibility and revenues – by adapting to modern expectations and thereby attracting more fans and participants
• Developing and expanding the game – by going beyond its historical borders while maintaining its strength within established unions
• Modernising the game – in order to strengthen World Rugby

Andrea Rinaldo

The Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) have backed Professor Andrea Rinaldo who is a former capped Italian lock.

He is the first Italian to run for the top job in rugby. He is seen as a respected figure in Italian rugby administration, with strong governance skills and a commitment to growing the sport (as do all of the candidates)

He has said he wants to enhance inclusivity and improve structures to support sustainable development across rugby globally. He told The Times newspaper in the UK, he wants to have a more scientific approach to run rugby.

*Full disclosure- his is the only manifesto we have not seen firsthand.

World Rugby Executive Board Nominations 2024 & Process

In addition, there are 13 nominations confirmed to have been received for the six available positions on the World Rugby Executive Board.

World Rugby says this will be the “first to sit under a new governance mandate of widened independent, player, national and regional representation.”

In line with Bye-Law 9, all nominations were received by the 15 October 2024 deadline, proposed and seconded by a member union or regional association, and were subject to a vetting process.

At the meeting in November, the 52 members of the Council will:

1. Firstly, elect the new Chair
2. Followed by six Executive Board members
3. From the Executive Board Members, the Vice-Chair will be chosen

World Rugby says the “process will be monitored by scrutineers, and voting results will be published. Elected officials will serve a maximum four-year term, dependent on previously appointed individuals not reaching the eight-year aggregate term limit within this period (this does not apply to the elected Chair, who may serve up to two terms).”

The six elected representatives will join the World Rugby Chair, World Rugby Chief Executive, Independent EventsCo Chair (to be appointed following an independent recruitment process), three independent members (approved by the Council – two female, including Angela Ruggiero whose current mandate runs through to 2027) and two athlete representatives nominated by International Rugby Players (IRP) (appointments approved by Council, one male, one female) on the Executive Board.

Female Representation – World Rugby & Regional Executive Boards

Out of all the Regional and Chairman nominees, only 2 out of 16 are female.

From an Asian perspective, the current Philippines Rugby Football Union (PRFU) President was the first Asian and female member of the World Rugby Executive Board (and one of very few female representatives on the Council). Ada Milby has been prevented from running as Asia Rugby EXCO backed current Present Qais Al-Dhalai was backed by the Asia Rugby EXCO – it seems there was an opportunity to have both in the race but the Asia Rugby EXCO backed one sole candidate, who let’s be frank, has a dubious record when it comes to financial accountability.

Elsewhere, Dr. Araba Chintoh has become the interim president for Rugby Americas North and is the first woman to hold this role in a regional association. 

Additionally, Asia Rugby could see the highest number of female candidates ever standing for its own EXCO positions with as many as five in the running for various roles – we will publish more this week.

Ada Milby is running in the Presidential race against incumbent UAE Vice-President, Asia Rugby & Arab Rugby President, Qais Al-Dhalai.

High Performance Union North (2 seats available)

• Susan Carty (Ireland) – nominated by Ireland and seconded by England
• Richard Collier-Keywood (Wales) – nominated by Wales and seconded by South Africa
• Jonathan Webb (England) – nominated by England and seconded by New Zealand

High Performance Union South (2 seats available)

• Mark Alexander (South Africa) – nominated by South Africa and seconded by France and New Zealand
• Bart Campbell (New Zealand) – nominated by New Zealand and seconded by South Africa
• John Eales (Australia) nominated by Australia and seconded by Oceania Rugby
• Agustín Pichot (Argentina) – nominated by Argentina and seconded by Sudamérica Rugby

Non-High-Performance Union (1 seat)

• Sally Dennis (Canada) – nominated by Canada and seconded by Japan
• Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi (Samoa) – nominated by Samoa and seconded by New Zealand
• Sebastian Piñeyrúa (Uruguay) – nominated by Uruguay and seconded by Argentina

Regional Association (1 seat)

• Qais Al-Dhalai (Asia Rugby) – nominated by Asia Rugby and seconded by Fiji (you can see more about his election promises as published by Asia Rugby here). 
• Herbert Mensah (Rugby Africa) – nominated by Rugby Africa and seconded by South Africa
• Richard Sapias (Oceania Rugby) – nominated by Oceania Rugby and seconded by New Zealand

One of the important aspects to see here is the nominations. Fiji Rugby (which has a poor record of governance and financial accountability – highlighted most recently by the Rugby World Cup 2023 player payments saga but the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) was suspended from the World Rugby Council in May 2023 due to governance issues) have backed Qais Al-Dhalai – who also now has a dubious record when it comes to financial accountability and governance based in the World Rugby Ernst & Young audit we reported on,

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and his own UAE are all being tapped for growth and he has made far-reaching promises about the growth of the game in his campaigning as well as for emerging nations.

Qatar wanted to secure the rights to host the finals of the first four editions of the new Nations Championship tournament which kicks off in 2026 and runs every two seasons – The idea was not seen as favourable by all but Qatar is still due to host the 2028 finals 

Criticism around doing business with countries with poor human rights records was the main point of contention (as FIFA had to deal with in the last World Cup) but there are also issues of having enough domestic on-the-ground support.

More recently, there has been concern about the seemingly strained relationship between Qais and Asia Rugby and World Rugby.

In the recent correspondence between Asia Rugby sent to World Rugby written and signed by Qais Al-Dhalai – in which World Rugby has suspended financing to the region following the damning audit and governance processes by the regional governing body – Asia Rugby refuted some of the claims and said other areas of concerns will be addressed – Al-Dhalai referred to the actions taken by World Rugby as “draconian, unhelpful and against the spirit of the values of World Rugby and the sport in general.”

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