London (AFP)
The 2019 World Cup in Japan was "one of the largest, if not the largest, of the World Cups," World Rugby general manager Brett Gosper said on Wednesday in an interview with AFP after the release of '' an audit report.
According to the report by the financial audit firm EY, the 2019 World Cup (September 20-November 2) was the most profitable in history, with more than 4 billion euros in economic spinoffs, 46,000 jobs created or kept .
By comparison, the Mondial-2015 in England only brought in + 3 billion.
"The 2019 Rugby World Cup was one of the most profitable events in the history of Japanese sport," said the report, which said that more than 2 billion euros were injected into Japan's GDP.
"It's a huge legacy: there has been an increase in participation in schools, a younger audience on social media and, on television, 58 million people watched the match between Scotland and Japan (Japan's 28-21 victory in the group stage, editor's note) ", welcomed Brett Gosper to AFP.
"It was a major national event and ubiquitous for all age groups," added the Australian leader.
In total, 1.83 million tickets were sold, for a record participation of 99.3% in the 45 matches of the tournament, the highest rate in the history of the World Cup, according to EY.
"This is why we went to Japan and Asia, to create new markets and new attendance. It gives us a bigger commercial footprint to reinvest in other regions of the world," said Mr. Gosper.
© 2020 AFP