Qatar show interest in hosting 2025 Rugby League World Cup
Recent Fifa World Cup hosts Qatar have expressed their interest in hosting the 2025 Rugby League World Cup, the International Rugby League (IRL) chairman has stated.
The Gulf state, whose Qatar Islamic Bank chairman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani is bidding to purchase Manchester United – could step in after the original hosts France pulled out of staging the competition in two years time.
The move, if successful, would mark a new wave of sporting investment from the Middle East.
“We have received expressions of interest from New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa and Qatar already,” IRL chairman Troy Grand said yesterday.
“We are yet to make any assessments in regard to their viability, I’m just being honest about who has reached out.
“It gives me comfort that there is interest in our sport and our World Cup. How real or viable any or all of those options are, we’re yet to make any of those assessments.”
New Zealand would be seen as front-runners out of the four options but Grant did state, according to PA, that the Qatari bid comprises two angles which combine both state and public funding.