Six Nations Rugby Ltd, of which all six participating countries including Ireland’s IRFU are shareholders, had put talks with private equity company CVC Capital Partners on hold at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Irish governing body is set to land a bigger sum when any deal is reached over the sale of the Six Nations stake with the total deal pre-pandemic reported to be worth €330 million. If we play behind closed doors, and we can still play those matches and finish off the season and still have the autumn internationals, if we do that behind closed doors that costs us €10-15m. "So even if we play behind closed doors it doesn't resolve the financial difficulty that we're going to be facing into. If we lose the Six Nations in 2021 you're talking about a €30m loss.

Source: Irish Examiner July 06, 2020 18:33 UTC