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GCT proposes new ‘club’ competition to spark ‘showjumping revolution’


  • A new “football-style club competition” is to run next year in showjumping.

    The series, run by the Global Champions Tour (GCT), will take place on the Friday of each of the 2015 GCT events. It will boost prize-money for the 2015 series to around €20m (£15.6m).

    Organisers have hailed it as a “showjumping revolution”.

    Club owners will field “star strikers” and two riders from a squad of four will be selected to compete at each event.

    The GCT could not confirm to H&H exactly how the series would work, and it has yet to be approved by the FEI.

    However, more details are promised at the final later this year (13-15 November).

    “I think it is going to be really exciting for the viewers and the fans, and if an owner buys a club they are obviously going to want to have the best riders and horses in their club, so it opens up the market into buying and selling riders, and I think this becomes very interesting and strategic,” said World number one Scott Brash.

    “If our sport can keep evolving, it can be spoken about and viewed along with the likes of golf, tennis and football.”

    This news story was first published in H&H magazine on 2 October 2014

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