“The idea is good, but it comes five years too late,” says show jumping national coach Otto Becker. The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) wants to revive the interest of the top riders in the Nations Cups with a boost of money. Two rounds, four riders per nation, three of which count – this is how the classic of equestrian sport has been decided almost unchanged since 1909. As long as the cash register, i.e. the prize money, was right, the saddle elite felt honored when they were called up to a team. But compared to other series, the cash register was no longer correct. And the enthusiasm of the stars diminished in proportion as there was more money to be won elsewhere, tradition or not.
“People waited too long for the situation to get as deadlocked as it is now,” says Becker. “The decision to do a top series now is the right one. Five tournaments with an appropriate endowment should be selected. We support that and hope to bring the top riders back to the tournaments.”
The five-star series, i.e. the highest category, is scheduled to start next year and will be given a new name, “League of Nations”, and three times as much prize money as before. In addition, it will be reduced from ten to five qualifying tournaments – with a final, probably in September in Barcelona as before. On top of that, it might even get a new mode: in the second round, everyone starts again from scratch (previously it was added), riders and horses can be exchanged. Three qualifications are to be held in Europe, two overseas. The FEI has announced an application process for the possible locations, otherwise many details are still open.
There will probably not be a German station because the CHIO Aachen will continue to run outside the FEI series. The reasons for this have nothing to do with show jumping, but with marketing. The sport has long since become an arena for the wrestling matches of two manufacturers of luxury watches. When Longines, title sponsor of the FEI and the world rankings, also entered the Nations Cup in 2018, there were problems – because some of the most important tournaments such as Aachen and Calgary were sponsored by competitor Rolex, and have been for many years. Aachen and Calgary stayed with Rolex and thus dropped out of Division 1, i.e. from the first league for the world’s best teams – which of course did not detract from the popularity of the Aachen Nations Cup.
Because the sponsor reacted quickly, created the Rolex Grand Slam, a series that, apart from Aachen and Calgary, also includes the indoor tournaments in Geneva and Hertogenbosch, with opportunities to win that had not previously existed in show jumping. The Grand Prix of Aachen 2023 is endowed with 1.5 million euros, of which 500,000 goes to the winner, with the prospect of further bonuses of up to seven figures for subsequent victories in the series.
36 million euros will be paid out in the two Global Champions series
In total, Rolex invests five million euros a year in the Grand Prix, i.e. the respective main event. Thanks to sponsor Mercedes-Benz, the Aachen Nations’ Cup was also significantly increased. Here, too, one million euros will be distributed among eight teams, so the 200,000 euros plus 50,000 for the best rider in the Longines series seemed rather modest from a rider’s point of view, from 2024 there should be 750,000 euros. The Grand Prix of the renowned CSIO La Baule (France) and Rome are meanwhile also sponsored by Rolex, although they are not part of the Grand Slam; the Nations’ Cups are financed by other sponsors.
The Global Champions Tour and the Global Champions League, in which Longines is also involved, offer even bigger prizes. The money distribution is not handled very transparently; it is said that €36 million will be paid out across the entire series of 16 tournaments, including €8.25 million in the final in Prague, the “playoffs” in the fall. The multinational teams have to buy into the series, and wild cards can also be purchased, so that in the end at least part of the prize money comes from the riders themselves or from their sponsors and horse owners.
So in order to save their Nations Cups in the face of all this competition, the FEI had to do something. First, the regulations were changed at lightning speed with the help of a “task force” in order not to have to wait until the general meeting in November. The FEI secured the right to choose the venue of the qualifiers, each a CSIO5*. Normally this is up to the national associations. A few years ago, the FEI had tried to usurp this right, but failed due to the resistance of several nations, including Germany. Now the German association agreed. “I can’t imagine that the FEI would compete with Aachen with a second German five-star CSIO,” says Soenke Lauterbach, Secretary General of the German Equestrian Federation (FN). Due to the change in the regulations, this would now be possible, but only for the qualifications of the new series.
In Aachen they remain calm, the contract with Mercedes-Benz has just been extended. “We at Aachen are not affected by this, but we have made it clear that in our opinion the national associations should continue to determine the venue of the O tournaments,” says Birgit Rosenberg, board member of the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein (ALRV). Aachen is the world’s number one international horse show and has a horse-loving region behind it, from which tens of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to the Soers every year. But others don’t sleep either. Ludger Beerbaum, on whose facility Riesenbeck International 2021 the European Show Jumping Championships were held, says: “Let’s see how things develop. Maybe we’ll throw our hats in the ring at some point.”