Players from England who take part in the possible new breakaway league for rugby union run the danger of not being eligible for the national team.
Plans are for a radical franchise league aimed at drawing the best names in the game.
Known as R360, the competition is set to start next year and has benefactors from many other sports believed to be interested in making investments.
Organisers maintain players will be able to continue representing their nations in events like the Six Nations and that the new league will not conflict with international rugby.
Any player who departs the Premiership to compete in R360 runs the danger of ending their international career, though.
The Rugby Football Union is contractually bound under the provisions of the new Professional Game Partnership (PGP) to only select players from the Premiership.
Still, ideas for the rebel league keep evolving in an attempt to upend the world order of rugby union.
With a global league that would be the “pinnacle of rugby,” R360 believes in a prospectus the sport may have its “Super Bowl moment”.
With London, Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and Cape Town all listed, the franchise competition would be staged mostly in the summer in some of the world’s largest cities with an objective to draw the best 300 men’s and women’s players in the globe.
With American star Ilona Maher on the advertising collateral, R360 has also promised to “unlock the potential of the women’s game”.
Many top players in the game, however, feel the ideas are flimsy and will find it difficult to gain either the necessary investment or the consent from the authorities.
While this would not conflict with the men’s Six Nations or the November internationals, R360 intends to take place in two blocks: April to June and August to September. The southern hemisphere Rugby Championship would thus coincide with both of these times.
World Cup champion Mike Tindall and former Bath captain and director of rugby Stuart Hooper lead R360.
In response to a club game that has “failed to capture the same level of interest and investment as international rugby,” Tindall notes in the prospectus R360 is being introduced.
“Clubs all around are feeling the strain and are being propped up by the international game,” Tindall said.
“Rugby’s lack of innovation and ability to change runs risks losing its appeal to new audiences and its younger market.”
