Mike's Minute: Pain for New Zealand Rugby

For a sport that is hardly sizzling in a sports world that is sizzling, the pain for New Zealand Rugby has clearly just got a whole lot worse. 

INEOS had a six year deal worth apparently $48 million. That’s $8 million a year. 

They have walked three years early and as a result are being sued by NZR. I don’t blame them. 

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is an interesting bloke. 

He is involved in English football through Manchester United and with Mercedes F1. He was involved in the America's Cup with Ben Ainslie, but has subsequently fallen out. 

I quite liked his cars. He wanted to keep making the old Land Rover Defender when they upgraded it a couple of years ago. He offered to buy the designs, Land Rover said no, so he invented his own a thing called the Grenadier, which although is no Land Rover, is not a bad looking thing to run up a paddock. 

I suppose you could ask whether Ratcliffe is even aware of any of this. But my guess is yes, given his prominence at the football and at the sailing. 

Has NZR, in INEOS' eyes, done something wrong? Have they not delivered on some KPIs? Is there a counter case here? 

In what court is this to be heard? How much time will it take and what will it cost? 

Is it a World Trade Organisation type-thing, whereby it's often not really worth the hassle because nothing tangible comes of it? 

Is it simply one of those contracts where as much as you might want to put down on paper, people and actions count for more and if you don’t want to do business then basically that’s the end of that? 

The union are the biggest losers and i feel sorry for them. No one at INEOS, I suspect, gives a monkeys. INEOS are global, from F1 to EPL. The All Blacks, although big in rugby, aren't huge globally and the hole left is more pressing for a sport than a petrol chemical company. 

Ratcliffe looks shabby if the union case is correct and he has simply bailed. 

But I doubt he is losing sleep. 

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