The French Rugby League Federation has announced that France has been selected as the host of the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
Full details of the event is to be revealed by Prime Minister, Jean Castex, in a press conference tomorrow at 10am at the Auditorium of the Agence Nationale de Cohésion des Territoires.
The competition enters its 7th edition in its return to the country, where the very first World Cup was held in 1954.
It was announced in March 2021 that France was the new favourite destination for the 2025 edition, where the US and Canada had originally been selected as hosts but backed out due to reported financial difficulties.
This followed heavyweights Australia and New Zealand confirming they would both withdraw from the tournament, stating it was ‘simply too unsafe’ to allow teams and staff to travel to the UK, where the RLWC2021 is taking place.
The announcement follows the postponement of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup due the COVID-19 restrictions and is now set to be held in October this year in England.
The country also hosted the tournament in 1972, where only France, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain took part. Now, the Cup includes the men’s, women’s, wheelchair athletes and young people games each containing 16 teams.
