A World Rugby delegation arrived in SA on Monday to begin two days of meetings with stakeholders involved with SA’s Rugby World Cup 2023 bid.
SA Rugby met World Rugby’s "applicant submission" deadline on September 1 2016 despite‚ at the time‚ not formally having national government’s backing to host the event.
France and Ireland also submitted bids to host the event.
Last April, Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula revoked rugby’s privilege of "hosting and bidding for major and mega international tournaments in SA" as a "consequence of not meeting their own set transformation targets".
Three other sporting codes were similarly penalised.
SA Rugby needs the government to underwrite the associated costs of putting on the global showpiece‚ including World Rugby’s "fee" in the region of R2bn.
As of Monday‚ SA Rugby still did not have the formal backing of the government.
An Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on sports transformation‚ chaired by Dr Willie Basson‚ which recommended the sanction in April 2016‚ has completed a review of the situation over the past 12 months.
Basson did not want to pre-empt the minister’s final decision but did say the "outcome of the process has led to significant improvements".
Basson said the EPG had delivered its report to Mbalula and the minister now had to review the data.
TMG Digital
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