Governing body World Rugby has officially launched the bid process for hosting the 2035 men’s Rugby World Cup.
At its general assembly in London yesterday, World Rugby said expressions of interest will be opened for applicants from next month, with preferred hosts chosen in May 2027.
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The final decision by the World Rugby Council will be announced in November 2027.
World Rugby chair, Brett Robinson, said: “The process we are launching for 2035 sits at the very heart of our renewed strategy to grow the reach, strength, and impact of the global game for our members.
“Following historic tournaments in the USA, we see 2035 as another major opportunity to unlock new audiences and additional value.”
In terms of the next few editions of both the men’s and women's World Cups, Australia will host the 2027 men’s tournament and the women’s 2029 edition, while the US will stage the men’s 2031 RWC and the women’s tournament in 2033.
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By GlobalDataThe 2023 RWC in France smashed records with 2.3 million fans attending and 1.33 billion viewing hours worldwide, while also generating as much as €1.8 billion ($1.85 billion) of spending towards the country’s economy. Overall, the 2023 event made a net gain to France of €871 million.
For the 2035 edition, Spain has already moved to gather domestic support for a potential bid for the event, with reports earlier this year that the Spanish Rugby Federation (FER) had begun talks with both World Rugby and the Spanish top-flight soccer league LaLiga to facilitate staging the event.
At the time, Spanish news outlets said FER representatives met with World Rugby to demonstrate their intent to host the tournament for the first time while also engaging with LaLiga to secure the use of its stadia to enhance its bid.
Spain is not new to hosting elite rugby, with the San Mames soccer stadium in Bilbao a particular standout, as it is set to host the final of the EPCR Champions Cup in 2026, having hosted once previously in 2018.
Spain last appeared at the Rugby World Cup in 1999 and has already qualified for the 2027 event. The team had qualified for the 2023 edition but breached player eligibility rules in the process and were removed from the competition at the behest of Romania, who ended up competing in their stead.
Internationally, Spain competes in the European Nations Cup, the highest tier of annual competition for European sides outside the Six Nations, finishing runner-up in the 2024-25 campaign, which ended on March 16, and domestically, the 12-team Division de Honor de Rugby is the top men’s league.
It has also been reported that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar are planning a joint bid for either the 2035 or 2039 Rugby World Cup.
A multi-host RWC in the Middle East would feature teams that have never qualified for the event before – none of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or Qatar have ever appeared at the top-tier rugby union tournament before.
Therefore, governing body World Rugby would almost certainly have to change its own rules on which countries are eligible to take part in a World Cup – currently, all nations must qualify on merit, including the host/s.
There would also likely need to be a change in the time of year the tournament would take place, with the Gulf’s September and October temperatures (the point at which a RWC is usually held) being too hot. The organizing nations will reportedly push for the event to run in December and January.
Aside from the logistics of holding the RWC in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere season, there would also be multiple accusations that the tournament would be a sportswashing exercise for the Gulf governments, who have regularly been accused of a range of human rights abuses.
However, none of this has stopped most other mainstream global sports – soccer, golf, and boxing among them – from engaging with the lucrative opportunities that the Gulf nations have to offer.
Indeed, the 2028 edition of the new-look Nations Cup rugby union finals is already set to take place in Doha, Qatar.
Elsewhere, the Japan Rugby Football Union said back in 2023 it would look to secure hosting rights for the RWC in 2035 and for the women’s tournament in 2037.
At the time, Kensuke Iwabuchi, then-chair of the JRFU, was quoted by the Kyodo news agency as saying: “We have informed [governing body World Rugby] that we are aiming to host at the earliest [in 2035 and 2037], and we will now go forward looking at when the conditions will allow us to stage it.”
