{"id":594561,"date":"2026-05-20T15:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594561\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:52:10","slug":"jim-hamilton-claims-influential-people-want-urc-prem-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594561\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Hamilton claims ‘influential people’ want URC-PREM merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Scotland international Jim Hamilton insists that a United Rugby Championship and PREM Rugby merger is a \u201crealistic\u201d proposition.<\/p>\n

In 2024, there were talks between the leagues and there was particular interest around setting up an Anglo-Welsh division.<\/p>\n

After that failed to come to fruition, it all went quiet, but speculation is starting to mount that it is back on the table with CVC reportedly taking a leading role.<\/p>\n

The private equity firm have invested in both the URC<\/a> and the PREM<\/a> \u2013 as well as the Six Nations \u2013 and Hamilton believes that they will start to take a more active role in shaping the future of the sport.<\/p>\n

It may not be a smooth negotiating process given the number of parties involved, while the South Africa<\/a> conundrum remains, but there appears an appetite to make it happen according to the ex-Scotland lock.<\/p>\n

\u2018South African teams will drop out\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis for me is happening. If anything realistically is going to happen, I can see this happening. I think this will happen in the next two or three years and I think the South African teams will drop out and potentially be in a Champions Cup of some form,\u201d he said on The Rugby Pod.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people want this to happen. As much as there might be people coming out saying: \u2018We don\u2019t want this to happen\u2019, there\u2019s a large majority of influential people that want a merge between the PREM and the URC without the South African teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

URC chief addresses Premiership merger talks giving \u2018due credence\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Former England fly-half Andy Goode, who was also on the show, insists that the role of CVC will be absolutely key in whether this ambitious project happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen CVC get mentioned, they\u2019ve owned a percentage of the PREM and a percentage of the URC and the Six Nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have sat there on their hands for however long and eventually you know that when you are a private equity fund and you\u2019ve invested in something you need to see a return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to make changes to suit them at some point, but it\u2019s the old rugby union issue; you\u2019ve got to get everyone to agree it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How CVC are positioning themselves<\/p>\n

Hamilton then chimed back in, adding: \u201cWith CVC, I\u2019ve spoken to someone who was involved with this deal and I\u2019m like, \u2018why don\u2019t they come out and get on a podcast?\u2019 And they go, \u2018Why? They don\u2019t need to do that. Let it all unfold, let the house burn down a little bit more and then we\u2019ll come in with the fire extinguishers, and we\u2019ll tell you how it\u2019s going to go down\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goode compared rugby\u2019s situation to Formula One after CVC helped build that sport before selling it on to Liberty Media Corporation, making more than $8 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we said ages ago. As the struggles continue around the club game, they\u2019re going acquire more and more at a cheaper amount,\u201d he added.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what they did in F1. They build it up, sell it for way more and off you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dan Biggar: Where Sharks owner \u2018loses the argument\u2019 amid \u2018half-pregnant\u2019 Champions Cup commitment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Scotland international Jim Hamilton insists that a United Rugby Championship and PREM Rugby merger is a \u201crealistic\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,50,21002,5903,4247,101,56,54,16296,55],"class_list":["post-594561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-rugby-championship","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}