Rugby ready for ambush in miniskirts

Photo / Sarah Ivey

Rugby World Cup organisers have their spies out in force, ready to spot anyone trying to gain exposure alongside their sponsor's brands.

While anyone caught doing so won't face a jail term - the situation two women at soccer's FIFA World Cup in South Africa found themselves in this week - they could face $150,000 fines.

Two Dutch women wearing orange mini-dresses promoting the Dutch beer Bavaria face jail terms of up to six months after being expelled from the tournament because of laws protecting Fifa's beer sponsor, Budweiser.

Ross Young, general manager of Rugby World Cup Ltd, which owns the competition, said yesterday that if similar activities emerged during next year's tournament in New Zealand, people would be punished.

But he said organisers had worked hard to create awareness of the rules of the Major Events Management Act, to prevent any problems.

Organisers had sent letters to hundreds of businesses around the world advising them about the tournament and explaining the rules.

The act, which was created in 2007 with the assistance of World Cup organisers, was to protect tournament sponsors such as Heineken and MasterCard, he said.

"We've got a duty to protect their investments and protect the money they've invested into the tournament.

"[The act] does give us a number of powers and abilities to stop things as and when they happen, or before they happen, so it definitely gives us more proactive ability to deal with these type of things.

"If you are just a normal punter wearing your own private clothes, you'll have no problem.

"Even a bunch of local guys in normal fancy dress having a good time - nobody's worried about any of that," he said.

"[But] if you've got a company that's got malicious intent to try and ambush the event ... then we're going to have issues and concerns with that, and we're going to deal with it appropriately."

Staff were working with lawyers and officers from the Ministry of Economic Development's enforcement team, watching for breaches of the act, Mr Young said.

An example included a company handing out try-scoring cards branded with a non-sponsor company's logo.

"Be aware we've got specific rights protection teams. It's not just activations in venues - people will try to do stuff both online and in printed material. It's all that sort of stuff."

Officers would most likely deal with matters discreetly and retrospectively so it did not attract attention at matches.

It was hard to compare what might happen in New Zealand to the limited facts known about the South African event, which appeared to be a case of "ambush marketing" .

The women were among a larger group who arrived at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg wearing dresses in orange - the Dutch team's traditional colour - that had been sold with packs of beer in the Netherlands.