NRL supremo Peter V’landys admits State of Origin coming to England is ‘absolutely’ part of the competition’s plan for global domination in the future.
Australia’s premiere competition is set to sit down with officials from Super League and the Rugby Football League over the coming days with a view to finally thrashing out a deal that would see the NRL invest in the English game – potentially leading to a major transformation of the game’s fortunes in the northern hemisphere.
And as part of the plan, it could lead to the jewel in the NRL’s crown, the annual three-match Origin series, being taken on the road and potentially coming to the United Kingdom.
London would be an obvious destination, with Queensland and New South Wales potentially set to compete against one another on the opposite side of the world – with V’landys admitting such a move was ‘on the plan’.
“Absolutely. That’s on the plan,” he told reporters in Australia when asked if Origin in England was on the radar. “If we make an investment in Super League, we will be bringing NRL competition games to London, absolutely.”
The NRL are in talks about what they hope will be a record broadcast deal which begins next year, which would further revolutionise the competition’s prospects on the financial front.
And V’landys also admitted that Origin could be hived off and sold in a separate package to the NRL league games, in a similar move to how Premier League football operates in the United Kingdom, with different broadcasters having different aspects of a deal.
“We have to look at all formats and that’s one of them,” V’landys said. “The jewel in the crown is State of Origin and there’s other channels (interested).
“Ideally we’d like it all in the one (package), but if you look at the NFL and how they do it, they’re very successful.”