RFL backs Jon Wilkin’s call for £30m five-year northern funding from Burnham

The Rugby Football League has backed former England player Jon Wilkin’s appeal for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to approve a £30m, five-year community funding plan for rugby league in the north of England, after Wilkin made the plea on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday.

Wilkin, who played 10 times for England between 2004 and 2011 and six times for Great Britain in 2006 and 2007, urged Burnham and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy — both described as rugby league fans — to pledge government money to a rugby league-based social impact project. He cited Australia’s July commitment of A$250m (£130m) over 10 years to the Pacific Rugby League Partnership, an initiative led by the Australian Rugby League Commission aimed at creating sporting, educational and employment opportunities in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

Wilkin argued that Britain should mirror that approach and proposed a targeted northern programme. He said: "Australia has recognised rugby league's potential as a vehicle for social change, committing hundreds of millions to developing communities, especially across the Pacific. Why shouldn't Britain show the same ambition for the north?" He added: "The ask would be simple: For the government to establish a £30m five-year Northern Rugby League social impact partnership, bringing together the RFL, professional clubs, community foundations, local authorities and government departments. The programme would target disadvantaged northern communities."

Ian Nolan, the RFL's new chief executive, has publicly supported Wilkin's plea; Nolan took up his role on 1 October and is a former Manchester United executive. Nolan said the social benefits of investing via rugby league could be realised more quickly because "When the government normally invest in community hubs and new things to generate something, they tend to be brand new," and it is "really difficult then to attract people to go there because it's a new habit, it's a new place." He added: "But rugby clubs are already established in the most deprived towns in the UK. And that's the difference. People already go there. Families already rely on them for even just moving around." BBC Sport has contacted the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for comment.

Nolan announced on Sunday that the RFL will consult English rugby league greats to map out a future for the national game under an initiative called One Game, One England. The governing body has acknowledged a need for reform from the grass-roots upwards to ensure players of sufficient quality are developed to benefit the national teams, after England's men and women both exited the Rugby League World Cup at the group stage in the past few days — the first time neither team reached the tournament's final four.

Wilkin has been critical of the domestic calendar, saying an overcrowded Super League schedule and the resulting lack of a mid-season international window contributed to England's poor World Cup showing. Nolan said there is scope to create higher-quality domestic representative fixtures, citing previous formats such as the International Origin series and the War of the Roses as possible models.

On that point Nolan said: "I think there's a big opportunity for us to start to think of new Ashes-type series that we could play against the likes of Australia and New Zealand or even against France, or even domestically," and added: "We've had flashes with War of the Roses and even the Exiles games. Although they might not be international games, they're actually of an international standard. I think what we've done is we've always innovated and come up with these formats, but then we haven't given them a chance to really grow legs like State of Origin has in Australia. So I'm hopeful that we can come up with some innovations."

International rugby league is under scrutiny, with the men's and women's calendars largely squeezed into October and November at the end of the club season. Former England player Ryan Hall told BBC Radio 5 Live that the men's World Cup suffered after being reduced from 16 to 10 teams, saying: "I don't think it is a World Cup," and comparing it to football's wider participation by noting Curacao's place at the football World Cup. The change left Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Jamaica and Wales missing out; the decision came after Australia stepped in to stage the tournament, which had been postponed when scheduled hosts France pulled out for financial reasons. The article also notes Jamaica and Lebanon both featured at the last Rugby League World Cup in 2022, although Jamaica were not involved this time and Lebanon are unlikely to be at the 2030 tournament as they are no longer a full member of the International Rugby League.

Wilkin also criticised the tournament's broadcast arrangements and the lack of a free-to-air live television deal, saying: "The BBC Sport mantra has gone from showing live sport to clipping up digital assets. It's a digital format now. And I suppose we're now trying to compete in a market for those scraps of digital content with every other football club in the country. And that is alarming, isn't it? The World Cup should have been on the BBC. There is no doubt in my mind as a public service broadcaster, this had so many reasons to be a slam dunk home run to be free to air on the BBC. It had to be." Premier Sports is showing all the World Cup matches live, with the BBC providing live radio coverage, online highlights and live text commentaries on selected games; rights were awarded by the International Rugby League, whose chair Troy Grant told the iPaper he was "disappointed that the BBC didn't stump up". A BBC spokesperson said: "We must make difficult choices to deliver the savings required while continuing to serve audiences as effectively as possible."

Nolan has set out a concrete next step by announcing the One Game, One England consultation, in which the RFL will engage English rugby league greats to help map the national game's future.