The governing body for rugby league in England face the threat of sanctions from the international board over an alleged £400,000 debt relating to the 2021 World Cup.
That World Cup was delayed until 2022 due to the pandemic with England hosting the men’s, women’s, and wheelchair competitions simultaneously in the biggest World Cup to date.
Three years after that competition was held and International Rugby League (IRL) chairman Troy Grant has spoken to Australian media to claim that the Rugby Football League (RFL) still owe around £400,000 in debts.
If that debt is not settled, then Grant has confirmed that the IRL will investigate the possibility of sanctions which could include the stripping of Test matches which would mean players don’t officially gain international caps, whilst prize money and appearance fees could also be denied.
Per The Daily Telegraph in Australia, the RFL deny owing any money and argues that the debt belongs a committee named World Cup ’21, the organisers of the event. However, the IRL have claimed that committee was created by the RFL and the alleged £400,000 debt was even recorded on the RFL accounts.
IRL investigate sanctions against RFL over alleged unpaid Rugby League World Cup debt
IRL chairman Troy Grant has pulled no punches in his assessment of the RFL and their behaviour over the alleged unpaid debt, insisting that they “get their heads out of the sand like ostriches and honour their debt and commitment to the game globally”.
He added: “They need to pay up or the IRL would have no alternative but to investigate sanctions. That’s the decent and right thing to do and it’s the only thing we will accept.”
Explaining the dispute, Grant said: “We are still chasing England for a debt from 2021, around 400,000 pounds – not an insignificant amount of money.
“They set up a body called the World Cup ’21 board and some of their commercial arrangements fell over after the tournament. They got heavily subsidised by the Government and they basically let costs overrun the budget. They didn’t closely manage it that well.
“The RFL, who set up the World Cup ’21 board, inherited the debt and liabilities because they are the funder of last resorts so we’re in dispute with them at the moment.”
Grant also revealed that the IRL had offered a repayment schedule, something that was snubbed.
He siad: “We have offered them a dispute resolution process and a repayment schedule but they are not taking that up at the moment, which is frustrating us. They say they don’t owe the debt yet they have put it in their own financial accounts.
“They have recorded it to their auditors as a financial liability but they are not prepared to work out a way forward. So they are either lying to the auditors or lying to us and I suspect I know which one it is.”
The possible sanctions of foregoing prize money would be a blow but perhaps more important would be Tests not being sanctioned, meaning players would not officially be capped.
Grant argued that with the influx of cash from the Ashes tour, the RFL should do the “decent and right thing” by settling the debt. He also labelled Nigel Wood’s return to power in the RFL as a “coup d’etat”.
Serious About Rugby League have contacted the RFL for comment in response to Grant’s allegations.
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