Australia or New Zealand could now host the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
France announced it would surrender its hosting rights due to financial reasons.
International Rugby League Chair Troy Grant expressed his disappointment in the withdrawal, with the board meeting on Wednesday to consider alternative options for the major event.
“It’s difficult to express how disappointed I am with this news,” Grant said.
“There’s no secret as to how important the strengthening of France as a rugby league nation is to our global game and central to our strategic plans.
“The Rugby League World Cup in France in 2025 was always an ambitious project given the unprecedented short lead in time due to the pandemic, however it had the advantage of following and leveraging off the widely acknowledged RLWC2021 success.”
Why did France relinquish hosting rights for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup?
In a statement released on Tuesday, France 2025 confirmed it would relinquish Rugby League World Cup hosting rights due to an inability to secure the financial viability of the event.
“Despite all the work carried out by the Organising Committee, it hasn’t been possible to fully secure the risk of a deficit,” the statement read.
“Despite the interest shown in this unique sport for all events, with four competitions in one (Wheelchair, Women’s, Men’s, Youth) and accessible to all, thanks to our ticketing rates, and despite the desire shown by several cities across France to host World Cup matches, the Board had to decide to renounce organising this major international competition, which the International Rugby League had entrusted to France.
“The conditions of financial viability initially defined by the State to support the project, set in January 2022, were not fully met, despite the search for solutions and the additional three months granted by the State to the organizing committee at the end of 2022.
“This difficult decision was taken so as not to threaten the robustness of the major international sporting event models that France now wishes to promote.”
Will Australia host the 2025 Rugby League World Cup?
Following the announcement of France’s withdrawal, New Zealand Rugby League took to Twitter to express interest in a joint bid for the tournament alongside Australia.
“We are exploring the possibility of a Southern Hemisphere RLWC as an alternative to France 2025,” NZLR CEO Greg Peters said.
“We’re keen to work with the ARLC to host the tournament in NZ and Australia and have started conversations. Bringing the international tournament down under is an exciting proposition not only for the fans but our Indigenous and Pasifika communities.”
Australia and New Zealand hosted the tournament in 2017 as part of a joint bid with Papua New Guinea.
The Kangaroos are yet to release their own statement on the mattet but we will be sure to update you as soon as they do.
