NRL players face 10-year ban for joining rebel leagues<\/a><\/p>\nThe Australian Rugby League Commission has announced a 10-year ban for any NRL player who agrees to join a football competition it does not recognise.<\/p>\n
The proposed ban would include exclusion from the NRL and any ARLC-sanctioned competition.<\/p>\n
R360 co-chief executive Mark Spoors said the new concept was about offering players “fresh opportunities”.<\/p>\n
“Recent announcements, sadly, have been anticipated,” Spoors said.<\/p>\n
“History shows that when athletes are offered free choice and given fresh opportunities for them and their families, then threats to those sportsmen and women follow.<\/p>\n
“R360 is about empowering players, giving them, rugby lovers and the next generation of fans opportunities and new platforms to enjoy the sport we love.<\/p>\n
“We know there is much interest in understanding more about the global series we’re building. We remain on plan and look forward to sharing and discussing the detail in the coming months.<\/p>\n
“That will include details of the exciting male and female playing talent who will participate in R360 when we kick off in October 2026.”<\/p>\n
NRL stars Ryan Papenhuyzen, Cameron Munster, Payne Haas and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck are among those who have been linked to potential moves to R360.<\/p>\n
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Broncos prop Payne Haas is rumoured to be a target of R360 organisers. (AAP: Dave Hunt)<\/p>\n
The competition is slated to start in late 2026 in a global, F1-style format with rounds in Cape Town, Tokyo and Dubai.<\/p>\n
“The Commission has a clear duty to act in the best interests of rugby league and its fans,” V’landys said in a strongly worded statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“We will take all necessary steps to protect the future of the game.”<\/p>\n
The ARLC’s hardline stance comes after the league met last week with the 17 NRL clubs, who asked for action against any defecting players and their managers.<\/p>\n
The official response came after the ARLC sought legal advice.<\/p>\n
The development also follows Rugby Australia’s warning that any player who joins R360 will be banned from representing the Wallabies, Wallaroos or Australia at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
The Rugby League Players’ Association (RLPA) is warning banned players would likely challenge the NRL in court.<\/p>\n
“No-one wants to see players leaving the NRL or NRLW,” RLPA chief executive Clint Newton said.<\/p>\n
“But the RLPA is uncertain about the legal basis or enforceability of the proposed bans.<\/p>\n
“We are concerned this is destined to be tested and decided in an Australian courtroom.”<\/p>\n
AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"R360 organisers have swiftly hit back at the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC), labelling threats of 10-year bans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[16040,64,63,132237,4567,158,13390,91747,6658,760,159,2633,49985,85],"class_list":["post-216291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-arlc","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-rugby-league-commission","tag-cameron-munster","tag-nrl","tag-payne-haas","tag-peter-vlandys","tag-r360","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league","tag-rugby-union","tag-ryan-papenhuyzen","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}