The next Rugby League World Cup, initially scheduled in France in 2025, will finally take place in 2026 and in the southern hemisphere, the International Federation (IRL) announced on Thursday following the French decision to withdraw from the organization. .
France had decided last May to give up hosting this 2025 World Cup due to a problem of “financial viability”, according to the organizing committee of the competition.
An International Rugby League board meeting in Singapore on Thursday agreed to move the event to 2026 with a revised format under a new global schedule.
Three competitions will be played at the same time: the men’s tournament with only 10 teams, the women’s tournament and the wheelchair tournament with eight teams competing.
The eight men’s quarter-finalists from the previous World Cup qualify automatically for the 2026 tournament, as do the four women’s and wheelchair semi-finalists.
The next men’s World Cups will always be scheduled on a four-year cycle but starting from 2026. The next one will therefore be in 2030 and so on.
It was also decided that the Women’s Rugby League World Cup would be held as a stand-alone tournament from 2028.
A decision will be made on the best time to schedule the Wheelchair World Cup after the 2026 tournament.
“The IRL Board made these decisions to create more compelling content and secure the financial future of the competition,” said IRL Chairman Troy Grant.
“The cancellation of France 2025 has given us the opportunity to refresh the structure of the World Cup and associated tournaments as part of a long-term international calendar that everyone in the game has been desperately looking for,” he said. he continued.
A decision on where to host the 2026 World Cup will be made by the end of the year. New Zealand recently said it was in talks with Australia to co-host the tournament after France pulled out.
The last Rugby League World Cup, which saw Australia win a third title in a row, took place in England in 2022, after a year’s postponement due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
