NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has insisted there are still plenty of hurdles to clear before investment into Super League can be approved.<\/p>\n
Abdo is in the United Kingdom this week to meet with the Rugby Football League and RL Commercial as talks over investment into the British game from Australian powerbrokers continue.<\/p>\n
It has been speculated that a deal is potentially close \u2013 but Abdo has told Love Rugby League that it will be \u2018weeks\u2019 before anything is finalised at the absolute earliest.<\/p>\n
He warned they will need to convince those in Australia \u2013 including the NRL clubs \u2013 that a deal to invest in Super League is right for the sport: but Abdo insists it is the right move.<\/p>\n
Abdo said: \u201cIt\u2019s always good to have meetings, great to do that. I\u2019ve learned a lot and I understand the dynamics. This is a consideration for the sport overall. It\u2019s not just about Super League, it\u2019s about how to make rugby league strong and vibrant again. It\u2019s about pathways, participation. It\u2019s a whole range of things which will unfold over the coming weeks and months.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked where the process was in terms of making an offer, Abdo said: \u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed the opportunity to listen and to learn and engage with different stakeholders, which is really important.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about an offer yet. It\u2019s about whether or not there\u2019s an opportunity to do something together in a formal partnership. Sure, we can bring some capital investment but there\u2019s quite a few things that need to occur still for that to happen on both sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got stakeholders on our side and our board has been really clear around what\u2019s required and our clubs will want to make sure this is something that\u2019s going to create value for the sport overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of exchanging information and we need to convince our stakeholders, our board and our clubs that there\u2019s value for the game here. Not just at the elite level but at all the way down. That will require us developing a business case and engaging with everyone\u2019 the Government, Sport England and potential broadcasters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Love Rugby League will publish a full Q&A with Abdo on Friday morning \u2013 which includes Abdo reiterating that any successful deal hinges on a change of governance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has insisted there are still plenty of hurdles to clear before investment into Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-534804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}