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IRB intent on Olympic inclusion
Thursday 10th January 2008 Planet Rugby
Newspaper reports suggest that the International Rugby Board (IRB) is to appoint a professional lobbyist to press the case for rugby's return to the Olympic Games.
According to Britain's Daily Telegraph, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge's rugby connections - Rogge was capped seven times by Belgium at flank after learning the game at university in France - may have worked against rugby's hoped-for return to the Games in the Sevens format.
The IRB will now "play the voting game much more effectively and not simply rely on the 'rights' of their case," said the newspaper.
"To that end the IRB will soon take a leaf out of the successful London 2012 bid and appoint a professional lobbyist to target those countries - and those votes - that will be needed when the question next comes up for debate next year, when the schedule for the 2016 Games will be decided."
Rugby supporters are baffled as to the sport's continued exclusion despite years of intense IRB interest.
A two-day Sevens tournament in London, for instance, is predicted to bring in more than 300,000 paying fans for a 24-team event with worldwide TV interest and advertising.
The newspaper notes that the main Olympic stadium in both Beijing this year and London in 2012 will be empty for six days between the opening ceremony and the start of the track and field athletics.
"To press their case the IRB are also set to make an offer you would think the commercially voracious IOC might find hard to refuse," the newspaper wrote.
"As a loss leader the IRB will fund and underwrite the organisation of any Olympic Sevens tournament, which would in any case be a huge earner for the IOC.
"One suspects rugby is beginning to talk a language the IOC understand."
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