Nations Championship loses title sponsor on eve of inaugural London climax

Wednesday 04 November 2026 11:11 am | Updated: Wednesday 04 November 2026 11:12 am

The Nations Championship has lost its title sponsor on the eve of the inaugural international rugby competition’s climax in a £15m blow to the sport.

Qatar Airways has cancelled its sponsorship agreement with the world’s top rugby nations, as well as a deal to host the 2028 finals – this year staged at London’s Allianz Stadium – in the Middle Eastern nation.

The finals weekend in four years’ time was pencilled in for the United States before returning to Doha in 2032. The Guardian reports that each of the iterations involving Qatar as host nation would have garnered the top 10 teams in international rugby a collective £80m.

The Middle East is currently experiencing turbulence amid the fallout from President Donald Trump’s conflict with Iran. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have been hit by Iranian drones, while Saudi Arabia has been the victim of targeted attacks by rebel groups in Yemen.

It could yet impact sports such as Formula 1, which still has scheduled races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi before the end of the year.

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Negotiations had been ongoing between Qatar, Qatar Airways, the six Six Nations teams and the four leading southern hemisphere countries for months and the inaugural Nations Championship finals weekend began without a sponsor.

The final weekend of the traditional Autumn Nations Series window has been replaced with a three-day, six-game festival of rugby. London was seen as a safe host for the first edition of the finals, with France and Spain reportedly interested in hosting the next edition.

Around 70 per cent of the tickets have been sold for the finals weekend, despite fixtures not being confirmed until a week prior. But there are thousands of tickets available for Wales’ three fixtures – against Japan, New Zealand and Australia – with the mood across the Severn Bridge likely to cost the governing Wales Rugby Union millions in revenue.