USA and Canada to host RLWC2025

[Foreign Legion]

RLIF CONGRESS SUPPORTS BOARD RECOMMENDATION RE 2025 WORLD CUP

Following the recommendation of the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) Board to conditionally award the 2025 World Cup to North America the RLIF Congress, at its annual general meeting held in Liverpool on 17 November, endorsed the Board's recommendation.

RLIF Chairman Nigel Wood commented:

"The award of the 2025 World Cup to North America is a historic moment in the global development of Rugby League. The USA and Canada provides world class stadia allied to a significant multi cultural population which made the bid so persuasive. It is exciting that our sport is expanding into a new destination for our premier event the World Cup and we will work with our members in the USA and Canada and Moore Sports International to expand the presence of our sport in these countries during the lead in to the 2025 World Cup."

"The Board will now work with Moore Sports International to complete the due diligence and exchange of contracts to complete the award."

During the RLIF Board meetings held in parallel with Congress the Board re-elected Nigel Wood (England) and John Grant (Australia) as Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively for a period of 2 years.

The Board confirmed that the draw for the 2017 Womens World Cup will be:
Pool A - Australia, England , Cook Islands
Pool B - New Zealand, Papua New Guinea , Canada

The pool matches and semi-finals will played in the Southern Cross Group Stadium in Cronulla, New South Wales between November 16 and 26 with the Final being played in Brisbane on 2 December . The top two teams from each pool will compete in the semi-finals.

The RLIF further announced that to assist the maximum number of teams to participate in the Wheelchair World Cup this will be held in France.

With the determination of the venue for the 2025 World Cup the Board will now complete the international calendar.

210 delegates attended the RLIF Congress hosted by the Rugby Football League with a variety of speakers including Olympic Gold medalists, leaders of the RLWC13, 17, 21 and 25 as well as industry experts .

RLIF Chief Executive David Collier commented:

"The Rugby Football League provided the RLIF delegates with an outstanding Congress sharing best practice in sport and providing information concerning the RLIF's future global events. The significant expansion of Congress delivered one of the key goals within our strategic plan, Global Conversion, to support Members and to share best practice."

"To align this Congress with the Final of the 4 nations enabled delegates to also experience Rugby League in one of the world's most iconic stadiums. The decisions arising from our meetings in Liverpool have given fresh impetus to the global expansion of the sport and we look forward to an exciting year in 2017 with the World Cup less than a year away and tickets now on sale for the matches in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea."

- See more at: http://rlif.com/article/8195/rlif-c...mmendation-re--world-cup#sthash.1U3LNrnR.dpuf

 

[Foreign Legion]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/38042943

North America is set to host the 2025 World Cup after initial plans got the support of governing body the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF).

England was awarded the 2021 World Cup in October after seeing off a rival bid from the United States and Canada, with North America recommended for 2025.

The tournament has always previously been played in Europe or Australasia.

RLIF chairman Nigel Wood said the award is "a historic moment in the global development of rugby league".

"It is exciting that our sport is expanding into a new destination for our premier event," he added.

"The USA and Canada provide world-class stadiums allied to a significant multi-cultural population which made the bid so persuasive."

The Toronto Wolfpack - Canada's first professional team - will compete in English rugby league's third tier in this coming season as part of the game's development in North America.

 

[wittyfan]

My only wish is that all games will be played on astro turf.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Well, it's probably the boldest thing RL has ever done. Better hope it works now. I'm not going to any games next year but I might set a long term goal of going to this and bank on the game still existing then and/or me still giving a shit.

 

[PaulyTom]

Brilliant news. 9 years to grow the game in the U.S.A and Canada .

Hopefully games are played in more boutique 20-40k stadiums and not the nfl and college stadiums that are monsters 75-110k. Unless they can fill them which I doubt they can fill that sort of volume.

 

[rooster25]

This is probably the biggest thing to ever happen to the game of RL. If it is successful it has the chance to propel RL into a major international sport with two of the biggest markets in the world. I'm thrilled the powers that be finally had the balls to give this a go.

As RL fans lets all get behind it.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Wow. Is this really happening? How good is this? Great news for International Rugby League. I know there was plenty of interest for the 2021 World Cup, however this will give them plenty of time to promote the game well. I can see it do well in Canada, but hopefully the same in USA.

 

[LESStar58]

My only wish is that all games will be played on astro turf.

My only wish is that the final be played at Soldier Field in the greatest city in the world, Chicago.

 

[dangerousdave]

Since there's 9 years and very few details at this point we should be able to have some fun speculating and making wishlists

 

[Nuke]

I should imagine this would mean Canada and USA will be given guaranteed spots in the 2025 RLWC then? It'd be preposterous to have a World Cup anywhere in the world and not include the home nation/s.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Now we need to see some action.

What are the RLIF and, probably more importantly, the major RLs going to do to grow the game in the next nine years? And when they say "grow the game" do they mean domestic game growth or just promotion of exhibition games?

They obviously need to work with the Canada RL and the USARL but I've noticed the USARL have not posted anything online about this yet, not even links to the story or a tweet. That seems quite strange. I know it's not their bid and they have nothing to do with the Moore group, but their country is hosting the World Cup and no reaction publically from the governing body of the sport in America? Were all of their officials in Liverpool and unable to organise anything?

 

[taipan]

There are 8 years for them to get this thing up to reality.
Money needs to be allocated from WC profits(a decent proportion) from now on to speed up grassroots growth.
It is up to US organisers to promote the hell out of the RLWC2025.

 

[adamkungl]

I'm really excited about this. Of all the big ideas and false starts for international Rugby League, this could be the one that takes off. I'll be going over for sure.

Some, if not most parts of the insular RL media in Aus and Eng will bag this off over the next 9 years.
The RLIF, the USA WC organisers, the NRL and the RFL have to be constantly putting out good stories and planning events in the lead-up.
6 years worth of events to plan if you exclude the WC years.

Easily achieved. No excuses imo:

*An annual NRL-SL double header. take 4 teams, 1 real competition game from each comp over in March or April. This is where the NRL and RFL can buy in, make some minor scheduling changes to the competitions, give them the funding and a bye week afterwards to make it worth their while.

* USA and Canada hosting annual tours. Australia, NZ, and England should all go over at least once. Throw in France and Ireland too. An American tour is a big incentive for Aus players too - it's high time we put to bed the image of Union players travelling the world while Leaguies travel Hull.

The above 2 events give us annual, top level Rugby League in the USA twice a year.

Harder to achieve, but necessary to a good lead-up, some major events.
2018 the USA should host the first leg of the Annual RL9s International Series. This should grow over the next decade to feature a leg on 6 continents.

2019 the USA should host some major matches in the planned mid-cycle Cup event. I won't say host the tournament - I've gone off hosted non-WC tournaments after the last 4N. But they should host multiple matches across the continent.

By 2020-21 we want to see the start of a small professional League in the USA, backed by growing amateur leagues spread throughout the country.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Brilliant news. 9 years to grow the game in the U.S.A and Canada .

Hopefully games are played in more boutique 20-40k stadiums and not the nfl and college stadiums that are monsters 75-110k. Unless they can fill them which I doubt they can fill that sort of volume.

There are heaps of purpose built soccer stadium of 20-30,000, check out the major league soccer venues.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

*USA and Canada both need to be included in the 2021 WC.
*Both need to be in the Confederations Cup (or whatever it will be) and host games in 2019 and/or 2023.
*Their Colonial Cup and Americas Cup games need to be played every year and at increasingly professional venues.
*Send other recognisable national teams over like Ireland, Italy, Russia and France who won't pump the local teams.
*NRL needs to provide salary cap concessions or discounts for any American or Canadian signed to any club.
*RFL can do the same although Toronto makes that harder.
*NRL, Origin and big Tests need to be on TV over there that people will actually see. Bigger channels not obscure cable channels that no one watches. Give them away or even pay a small amount if necessary.

Can guarantee the NRL-related ones won't happen.

 

[jim_57]

Even with the recent "recommendation" I still had a gut feeling it wouldn't happen. Now it's looking more official it's one of the biggest and riskiest move in RL history, refreshing change.

Getting exposure & games in the US & Canada has to be a high priority now. Hard to juggle, but I think they'll really need to pick a core of cities to go to again and again, having 20 big games in 20 different North American cities won't have the same effect/legacy as playing 20 in 5-6 cities. I'm sure the bid team already has an idea of where they're going to target in regards to this.

The next and almost as important step is trying to get USA & Canada up to speed on the field. Regular and competitive Internationals are one part of this, but to be truly competitive there has to be a plan to get more born & bred North Americans in to Pro RL. A pro comp in the US would be huge, but would likely to be off the speed of NRL and even SL for quite a while. Getting pathways in place for North American players to NRL & SL clubs is the key, how best to do that I'm not sure.

 

[adamkungl]

*USA and Canada both need to be included in the 2021 WC.
*Both need to be in the Confederations Cup (or whatever it will be) and host games in 2019 and/or 2023.
*Their Colonial Cup and Americas Cup games need to be played every year and at increasingly professional venues.
*Send other recognisable national teams over like Ireland, Italy, Russia and France who won't pump the local teams.
*NRL needs to provide salary cap concessions or discounts for any American or Canadian signed to any club.
*RFL can do the same although Toronto makes that harder.
*NRL, Origin and big Tests need to be on TV over there that people will actually see. Bigger channels not obscure cable channels that no one watches. Give them away or even pay a small amount if necessary.

Can guarantee the NRL-related ones won't happen.

All pretty good ideas. Not sure about automatic qualification for both American teams (Eastern european conuntries in particular might crack the shits) But for 2021 I'd definitely have 1 American qualifier and a playoff for the 2nd.

 

[RL The greatest game]

Perhaps this is the time tp play the WCC in North America.

 

[Burns]

This is really the best announcement we've had on the international level in the longest of times. I agree with everything adamkungl and East Coast Tiger have suggested above. Although I cant see any of them happening til the last minute in a hurried attempt to build momentum.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

All pretty good ideas. Not sure about automatic qualification for both American teams (Eastern european conuntries in particular might crack the shits) But for 2021 I'd definitely have 1 American qualifier and a playoff for the 2nd.

The eastern euro teams should get a spot in 2021 anyway as long as they get a reasonable route. The team to miss out is more likely to be someone like Scotland if they still haven't got a domestic game by 2019 or 2020. The RLIF are going to have to grow a pair and boot anyone who simply doesn't meet the criteria. At worst I'd make sure the qualification process for the American teams is as easy as possible. They're both going to get a run in 2025 at someone's expense anyway. With 16 teams I don't see why there can't be two from the Americas and an extra Euro team on top of what we have next year.