New venues considered for 2025 World Cup after France withdraws

New venues are being considered for the 2025 World Cup after France withdrew from hosting the tournament.  

The board of International Rugby League will convene on Wednesday to consider options for the World Cup after the France 2025 organising committee announced that it had been forced to relinquish the hosting rights.  

IRL chair Troy Grant said the decision was disappointing, but the France 2025 board of directors felt they had no choice after the French Government demanded a guarantee for the risk of loss for the event.

The IRL board will now consider other options for RLWC2025 while continuing work to finalise international fixtures for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.  

The IRL expects to be able to advise member nations of planned qualifying matches or alternative fixtures after July 2023.

 “Despite our focus having been on France, we will now accelerate our consideration of other contingency options," Grant said.

“The board meets face to face in July and we will then be able to determine together our next steps forward and consider the other bids we have received for not only 2025, but 2029, 2033 and World Cup 9s events in the future.

“Exciting international content for 2023 and 2024, in addition to the recent historic Tongan tour to England, will be announced publicly shortly, which will be the front end of our much needed and highly anticipated calendar.” 

Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea hosted the 2017 World Cup, while RLWC2021 was held in England last year, with the Kangaroos and Jillaroos winning their finals at Old Trafford on November 19.

Samoa created history by becoming the first tier two nation to qualify for a World Cup final and were one of six Pacific nations - along with Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga - to qualify for RLWC2025 by reaching the quarter-finals. 

The Rugby League World Cup originated in in 1954 in France, who also hosted the 1972 tournament.

With the World Cups staged since alternating between the United Kingdom and Australia, the awarding of the 2025 tournament to France was viewed as an opportunity for the international game.

However, an emergency meeting of the France 2025 board on Monday decided to renounce organising the World Cup, which had been enthusiastically launched by then French Prime-Minister Jean Castex in January, 2022. 

 A statement issued afterwards by France 2025 said the conditions of financial viability defined by the French Government at the same time to support the project had not been fully met, despite the efforts of the organising committee.

“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. 

“Despite the historically short lead in period,  Luc Lacoste and his LOC worked tirelessly and achieved so much in a short time.

"Luc has brought a renewed zest and interest to French Rugby League during his tenure and the World Cup was planned to be the springboard for further development of the sport in France.

“The factors that impacted on the bid team’s ability to complete the early structure of the tournament, such as the economic crisis and, in particular, inflationary pressure on host town council budgets, undermined their ability to secure adequate securities for the event to satisfy the government’s strict conditional benchmarks, put forward from the beginning of the process, for the tournament to proceed. 

“The French government, particularly the Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, supported the bid team financially and granted additional time to meet benchmarks given the interruptions and obstacles that were put in their way that were out of their control. 

“I respect the French Government’s decision amid the challenges they are facing but I can’t hide my disappointment, that I conveyed clearly to them in person."