2021 Rugby League World Cup

There were initially three bids for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup but the United Arab Emirates bid[3] had to be cancelled due to the arrest of Sol Mokdad at the behest of UAE rugby union officials.[4]

England, and the United States and Canada were the two remaining bidders of the event. The English RFL received UK government support - £15 million to enhance the tournament and up to a further £10 million into the game's infrastructure - for the event to be staged in the country. The RFL mentioned they wanted the event to be the most attended in history with over 1,000,000 people attending the grounds over the tournament's days. They were also planning to use 12 venues for the event which included non-purpose and rugby league-purpose stadiums.[5]

The United States and Canada bid was initially a sole United States bid from an Australian sports marketing agency, Moore Sports International (MSI). Jason Moore of MSI stated that rugby league has a strong following in several US markets and that fans new to rugby league and "who have a hunger for gladiatorial-style sports are going to fall in love with this extraordinary game".[6] Eight to ten cities, featuring venues from either the NFL or MLS, were planned for the event, offering Rugby League International Federation the opportunity to stage the tournament outside of Europe and Australasia for the first time.[7] Canada Rugby League later announced they wanted to be a part of the United States bid stating that the cities of Vancouver and Toronto could also potentially host matches.[8]

On 27 October 2016, the RLIF announced that England had won hosting rights for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.[9]

The World Cup draw was held on 16 January 2020,[10] hosted by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, at Buckingham Palace.[11]

The eight quarter-finalists of the previous tournament in 2017 earned automatic qualification to the 2021 tournament. As such, the allocations were confirmed as 6 teams from Europe (excluding hosts), 6 from Asia-Pacific, 1 from Middle East/Africa, 1 from the Americas, and 1 from an intercontinental play-off.[12] Qualification began in on 16 June 2018, and concluded on 16 November 2019.

Qualified teams

Region	Team	Qualification method	Previous appearances	Previous best result	World ranking
Americas	Jamaica	Americas winner	0	Debut	20
Asia-Pacific	Australia	Automatic	15	Champions (1957, 1968, 1970, 1975, 1977, 1985–88, 1989–92, 1995, 2000, 2013, 2017)	2
	Cook Islands	Repechage play-off	2	Group stages (2000, 2013)	23
	Fiji	Automatic	5	Semi-finals (2008, 2013, 2017)	5
	Tonga	Automatic	5	Semi-finals (2017)	4
	New Zealand	Automatic	15	Champions (2008)	1
	Papua New Guinea	Automatic	7	Quarter-finals (2000, 2017)	6
	Samoa	Automatic	5	Quarter-finals (2000, 2013, 2017)	7
Europe	England[lower-alpha 1]	Hosts	6	Runners-up (1975, 1995, 2017)	3
	France	European winners	15	Runners-up (1954, 1968)	8
	Wales[lower-alpha 1]	European runners-up	5	Semi-finals (1995, 2000)	14
	Scotland[lower-alpha 1]	Europe play-off 1	4	Quarter-finals (2013)	9
	Ireland[lower-alpha 1]	Europe play-off 2	4	Quarter-finals (2000, 2008)	12
	Greece	Europe play-off 3	0	Debut	11
	Italy	Europe play-off 4	2	Group stages (2013, 2017)	13
Middle East-Africa	Lebanon	Automatic	2	Quarter-finals (2017)	10

1. Competed as part of  Great Britain in nine previous tournaments, finishing as champions on three occasions (1954, 1960, 1972). The squads largely consisted of English players, but also featured Welsh players in every tournament. Scotland (1954, 1968, 1977, 1989–92) and Ireland (1957) were represented by native-born players in some tournaments.

The IRL is currently assembling a team to officiate the World Cup and have confirmed there will be eight main referees. The ARL Commission and RFL have confirmed their referees and the remaining spot will be decided by from another country. No more than three referees can be from one country.[13][14]

Referees:

• Grant Atkins ( Australia)
• Robert Hicks ( England)
• Chris Kendall ( England)
• Ashley Klein ( Australia)
• Liam Moore ( England)
• Henry Perenara ( New Zealand)
• Gerard Sutton ( Australia)

Video Referees:

Touch Judges:

The full list of 21 venues to be used for the three tournaments (men's, women's and wheelchair) was announced on 29 January 2019.[15] Eighteen venues will be used for the men's tournament and in addition Preston was announced as a training venue for the tournaments.[15] The use of the as-yet unbuilt Workington Community Stadium as a venue was thrown into doubt after the 2019 Allerdale Borough Council election when control of the council changed and the new council showed less enthusiasm for the new stadium project.[16] In early July 2019 Allerdale Council confirmed that they would be unable to host any matches in the tournament. The tournament organisers responded that the three group matches planned for Workington would be re-allocated.[17] On 28 August 2019 it was announced that Kingston Park in Newcastle upon Tyne would host the three games originally planned to take place in Workington.[18]

Manchester	London	Liverpool	Newcastle	Leeds
Old Trafford	Emirates Stadium	Anfield	St James' Park	Elland Road
Capacity: 74,994	Capacity: 60,260	Capacity: 54,074	Capacity: 52,405	Capacity: 37,890
Middlesbrough	Newcastle Newcastle London Liverpool Middlesbrough Sheffield Coventry Hull Doncaster York St Helens Warrington Greater Manchester West Yorkshire Leigh Bolton Old Trafford Stadiums in Greater Manchester Leeds Headingley Huddersfield Stadiums in West Yorkshire			Sheffield
Riverside Stadium				Bramall Lane
Capacity: 34,742				Capacity: 32,702
Coventry				Bolton
Ricoh Arena				University of Bolton Stadium
Capacity: 32,609				Capacity: 28,723
Hull				Huddersfield
KCOM Stadium				Kirklees Stadium
Capacity: 25,586				Capacity: 24,500
Leeds				St Helens
Headingley Stadium				Totally Wicked Stadium
Capacity: 21,062				Capacity: 18,000
Doncaster	Warrington	Leigh	Newcastle	York
Keepmoat Stadium	Halliwell Jones Stadium	Leigh Sports Village	Kingston Park	York Community Stadium
Capacity: 15,231	Capacity: 15,200	Capacity: 12,000	Capacity: 10,200	Capacity: 8,500

The men's tournament opening ceremony will take place at St James' Park in Newcastle on 23 October 2021.[20][21]

The top 2 teams from each pool advanced to the quarter-finals. All quarter-finalists automatically qualified for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.

At the moment only the United Kingdom's broadcasting of the World Cup have been confirmed. Australia's broadcasters are expected to be run by Fox Sports and a free to air broadcaster. New Zealand's broadcaster is expected to be Sky Sport.[24] As of January 2021 the World Cup Organisers have started to look for broadcast partners for the two countries.[25]

Country	Broadcaster	Matches
United Kingdom	BBC	All 31 matches live, 16 matches on BBC1 or BBC2, Venue launch programme[26] and highlights programme[27]
	OurLeague App	All 31 matches live, exclusive post match interviews and OuRLeague highlights programme.[28][29]
	RugbyAM (FreeSports)	Highlights programme and post match interviews.
	FacebookLive (RLWC2021 and Royal Family Pages)	Group Draws for Men's, Women's, and Wheelchair. Hosted by HRH Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex.

In April 2019, it was reported that the digital strategy for the tournament will be led by Deloitte.[30] In May 2019, the RLWC organisers announced they were looking for an esport partner to engage new audiences with the sport.[31]

The 2021 Rugby League World Cup commenced a legacy project called InspirationALL in 2018.[32]

In 2019 it was announced that the RLWC contacted Rugby League governing bodies across the world regarding a 'Festival of World Cups'. Organisers have stated the festival of world cups will take place in the summer of 2021, before the commencement of the Men's, Women's, and Wheelchair tournaments, taking place in the autumn of 2021.[39]

Previous RLWC tournaments have also hosted a Festival of World Cups, which have historically included a University World Cup, Police World Cup, and a Defence Forces World Cup. 2021 is expected to include an emerging nations tournament for both men and women.

In August 2020, the Festival Of World Cups was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic [40]

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