NRL takeover of Super League depends on keeping French sides

04/08/2025 01:05 PM

• Australian powerbrokers ready to take 33% stake
• London club also favoured to play in a 10-team format

Any potential deal for the NRL to take control of Super League depends on the continued presence of French clubs in the British game. Australian powerbrokers are likely to abandon plans to buy a stake if Catalans Dragons and Toulouse are ejected by clubs leading a review into the sport in the UK.

There is an increasingly hostile power struggle developing in British rugby league after a number of clubs – spearheaded by Leigh Leopards and Batley Bulldogs – successfully removed Simon Johnson as the Rugby Football League chair and installed as his replacement the governing body's former chief executive Nigel Wood.