Sports

Wilkin calls on government to back £30m rugby league plan

Carys BevanPublished 12m ago2 min readBased on 1 source
Wilkin calls on government to back £30m rugby league plan
Photo by Thomas Serer on Unsplash

Former England international Jon Wilkin has asked Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to back a £30m, five-year funding plan for rugby league. The sport's chief executive, Ian Nolan, has supported the call.

Wilkin made the plea on Monday on BBC Radio 5 Live's Rugby League show. The plan would see the government set up a Northern Rugby League social impact partnership. A social impact partnership is a project that uses a sport to deliver benefits beyond the game itself, such as better health, stronger local clubs and more to do for young people. This one would target disadvantaged communities across the north of England.

Rugby league is the 13-a-side version of the game, and it is most popular in the north of England. It is run in England by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the sport's governing body. Nolan took up the role of RFL chief executive on 1 October. He is a former Manchester United executive.

For comparison, Australia's government announced in July that it would commit A$250m (£130m) over 10 years to the Pacific Rugby League Partnership. That funding is aimed at developing the sport across the Pacific islands.

Nolan's arrival comes at a difficult moment for the England teams. Both the men's and women's sides went out of the Rugby League World Cup at the group stage. The group stage is the first round, where teams play a small pool of opponents. It is the first time neither England team has reached the final four at the tournament.

The RFL has responded with a plan of its own. Under an initiative called One Game, One England, it will consult some of the sport's greatest English players to map out its future. The consultation is designed to gather views from people who have shaped the game over many years.

The £30m proposal is still just that, a proposal. It would need government approval before any money changed hands. For now, the message from Wilkin and Nolan is that rugby league's grassroots and community work needs support beyond the sport's own budgets.

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