ABSTRACT
Until recently, rugby union football was one of the few international sports that had withstood commercial pressures and strictly adhered to the ideals of amateurism. The roots of the game’s amateur principles can be traced back to 1886, when the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the governing body of the sport in England, enacted legislation that forbade payment of any kind to players for loss of earnings incurred through playing the game. The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB), also established in 1886, similarly ruled that the principles of amateur competition were to be applied worldwide. For nearly 100 years, this amateur ideal remained central to the sport.
