Qatar recently made history by hosting the football World Cup. Now the Middle Eastern powerhouse has made a multimillion-dollar bid to save rugby league’s World Cup after NRL super coach Wayne Bennett’s push for an international showpiece in France has collapsed.
Qatar has expressed interest in hosting the 2025 World Cup as the Rugby League International Federation explores a Plan B contingency after the shock withdrawal of France. RLIF delegates have been left scrambling after French organisers pulled the pin on hosting the 2025 event, saying they couldn’t fully meet financial guarantees demanded by the French government.
It is understood Qatar made $17 billion in revenue from last year’s football World Cup, despite the nation coming under fire over human rights issues relating to infrastructure and stadium development.
But rugby league is open to exploring a historic venture in the Middle East as the RLIF moves to find a swift World Cup solution. New Zealand is believed to be the favourite to replace France as host, but the RLIF will hold preliminary talks on Wednesday to assess the claims of bids from Papua New Guinea and Qatar.
“We’ve got one option from the Middle East and two are from the Pacific,” RLIF chairman Troy Grant said. “It would be very exciting for the rugby league World Cup to go to the Middle East.
“They approached us a few months ago, so there’s a lot to consider, but we are trying to take the game to new markets.
“We want to break the Australia, England, Australia, England cycle (of hosting World Cups). Taking the World Cup to new frontiers has been the plan for a while.
“We were keen on America (for the 2025 World Cup) but they aren’t ready yet for a six-week tournament to hold interest locally in rugby league.
“New Zealand would be a wonderful host, but it depends whether their government has the interest in the World Cup.
“Certainly, the Middle East could bankroll it and that’s a big component of staging a World Cup. If we were smart about the packages and we partnered well with governments and tourism, we could do it (take a World Cup to the Middle East).”The first step might be to have a smaller tournament there such as the World Nines, but the Middle East is interested and we’ll discuss it as the board.”
Grant was left stunned by the code’s international bombshell after the likes of Bennett, Roosters mentor Trent Robinson and ex-Wallabies coach Michael Cheika backed plans for a World Cup in France.
“I can’t be more disappointed,” he said. “It was my idea to go to France on the back of Wayne Bennett’s advice.
“Trent Robinson and Michael Cheika were others who provided great support to explore the World Cup in France.
“Wayne was a huge fan of the concept. he believed international football needed to grow and he saw great merit in a World Cup in France.
“He said, ‘You have to invest in France’, so I came up with the idea in 2021 to jump on the back of rugby and the Olympics and give France a triple treat of international sporting festivals. The French organisers were excited, things were going great, then there was a change of government in France and the war in Ukraine
“If there wasn’t a war in Ukraine, the World Cup would have gone ahead in France and it would have been a massive success. But we’re a victim of world events.”
Troll much ?
