Qatar Airways title sponsored the clash between Wales and South Africa at London’s iconic Twickenham Stadium last year. (Paul Harding/Gallo Images)

The Qatar Airways airline is set to become the title sponsor of rugby union's new Nations Championship, it has been reported.

An eight-year (and four-edition) sponsorship of the biennial international tournament will begin in 2026, according to The Guardian. It will reportedly run until 2034.

The Guardian has claimed the value of the deal makes it the most lucrative title sponsorship across rugby union, with each individual edition of the Nations Championship valued at around £20 million ($24.2 million).

This report comes with Qatar also set to be announced as the host of the second finals edition of the Nations Championship, in 2028.

The inaugural Nations Championship gets underway next year, as a joint venture run by the European Six Nations collective (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy), and the main southern hemisphere rugby union nations.

London will host the first edition of the finals series in 2025.

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The tournament will entail a series of group stage games, to decide seedings, before the sixth-ranked Six Nations team plays their southern hemisphere counterpart, (fifth plays fifth, and so on). A Grand Final will then be held between the top two nations.

In terms of its existing rugby union presence, in July last year, Qatar Airways (fully owned by the Qatari government) was unveiled as the title sponsor for the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia. That deal has been valued by GlobalData Sport at $4 million.

Through a tie-up with the touring organization and Rugby Australia (brokered by the Pitch International agency), Qatar Airways has also become the official airline of the three-test tour.

It also put its name to a clash between South Africa and Wales – renamed as the Qatar Airways Cup – in mid-2024 in England.

Elsewhere across sport, the airline is a major sponsor of European soccer's elite UEFA Champions League, through a deal announced last September.

In addition, it has tie-ups with top-tier soccer clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain (France) and Inter Milan (Italy), and with motor racing's Formula 1.