Last week, the Rugby Football League announced that Britain has constructed plans to host the next World Cup. Executive chairman of the RFL, Richard Lewis, hopes that the next Rugby League World Cup will be moved to 2013 in order to avoid clashing with the Olympics and has spoken of the strength of Britain’s prospective bid.

The plans that have been drawn up envisage a 12-team tournament, as opposed to the 16-team event seen in 2000 and this year’s 10-team competition. The plans have been greeted with criticism from some sections of the British media, since the RFL lost approximately £700,000 the last time it hosted the World Cup, in 2000.

The 2000 tournament was meant to light up the UK’s sporting scene but the reality was somewhat different. World-class rugby league players were forced to play in embarrassingly empty rugby stadia and several of the matches were ruined by typically British weather conditions.

The British public generally failed to show any excitement during the matches, many of which were one-sided and thus boring. Those fans who did have a passion for the sport encountered difficulties whilst trying to purchase tickets on match days and this resulted in many fans missing large parts of the games.

Those involved in the sport were particularly concerned with the poor marketing for the matches. However, Richard Lewis believes that important lessons have been learnt from that experience and says that the UK is now “the right place” for the World Cup to be staged.

Written by Charlotte Cook