United KingdomChallenge Cup
National Leagues
Northern Rail Cup
Rugby League Conference
| Rugby Football League |
|---|
|
| Founded: 1895 (as the "Northern Rugby Football Union") |
| RLIF Affiliation: 1948 |
| Headquarters: Leeds, Yorkshire |
| Chairman: Richard Lewis (2002-) |
| Nations |
| United Kingdom |
| Competitions |
| Super League Challenge Cup National Leagues Northern Rail Cup Rugby League Conference |
| Official Site |
| www.therfl.co.uk |
The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in the United Kingdom. Based in Leeds, it administers the England national rugby league team, the Challenge Cup, the Rugby League National Leagues and Super League (Europe). The amateur/junior game is administered in association with the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA).
The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisation. This has since been supplanted by Super League and the Rugby League National Leagues.
With the advent of Wales Rugby League, Scotland Rugby League and Rugby League Ireland, the RFL is increasingly becoming an English organisation.
The RFL is part of the Community Board, which also has representatives from BARLA, Combined Services, English Schools Rugby League and Student Rugby League.
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On 27 August 1895, as a result of an emergency meeting in Manchester, prominent Lancashire clubs Broughton Rangers, Leigh, Oldham, Rochdale Hornets, St Helens, Tyldesley, Warrington, Widnes and Wigan declared that they would support their Yorkshire colleagues in their proposal to form a Northern Union.
Two days later, on 29 August 1895, representatives of 21 clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the "Northern Rugby Football Union" (usually termed Northern Union or NU). Twenty clubs agreed to resign from the Rugby Union, but Dewsbury, felt unable to comply with the decision. The Cheshire club, Stockport, had telegraphed the meeting requesting admission to the new organisation and was duly accepted with a second Cheshire club, Runcorn, admitted at the next meeting.
The 22 clubs and their years of foundation were: Batley FC 1880, Bradford FC 1863, Brighouse Rovers FC 1878, Broughton Rangers FC 1877, Halifax FC 1873, Huddersfield FC 1864, Hull FC 1865, Hunslet FC 1883, Leeds FC 1864, Leigh FC 1878, Liversedge FC 1877, Manningham FC 1876, Oldham FC 1876, Rochdale Hornets FC 1871, Runcorn 1895, Stockport 1895, St Helens FC 1873, Tyldesley FC 1879, Wakefield Trinity FC 1873, Warrington FC 1875, Widnes FC 1873, Wigan FC 1872.
The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) was created in 1973 in Huddersfield by a group of enthusiasts concerned about the dramatic disappearance of many amateur leagues and clubs. Fewer than 150 amateur teams remained with a mere 30 youth rugby league teams. The 'breakaway' from the RFL was acrimonious and was strongly contested, with a vote 29-1 against recognising BARLA. Thanks to Tom Mitchell, this changed to an unanimous vote of approval for BARLA within 12 months.
Maurice Lindsay became the chief Executive of the RFL in 1992, proposing the Super League, which replaced The Big League as the sport's main competition from 1996 onwards. Maurice returned to Wigan in 1999 for his second stint at the club after Sir Rodney Walker, then chairman of the RFL, sacked him after a campaign to unseat him failed.[1]
The RFL accumulated losses of £1.9 million at the end of 2001, shortly before a major restructuring of the governing body and the appointment of Richard Lewis as executive chairman in May 2002. [1] Within a year of joining the RFL, he oversaw reunification with BARLA after nearly 30 years of division.[2]
Then Widnes Vikings chairman Tony Chambers claimed that Lewis showed his strong expansionist credentials in 2005 when he allegedly threatened to resign if Super League clubs did not back a plan to save London Broncos (now Harlequins Rugby League), although he denies this.[3]
Under Lewis, plans for a Super League franchising system were introduced.
Following Nigel Wood's appointment as RFL Chief Executive in October 2007, Lewis's role increasingly focusses on developing rugby league in the UK and internationally.[4]
The RFL was originally based at 180 Chapeltown Road, Leeds and later moved to Red Hall, Leeds.
The RFL board consists of five members:
The head of refereeing in the RFL is former referee Stuart Cummings. The RFL decided that from the 2007 there would be six full time referees - previously referees had been part time. The RFL still employs part time officials to supplement the full time referees in the Super League and to be touch/in-goal judges in the Super League. The National Leagues are still refereed by part-time referees. The full-time referees are:
There was some criticism of the RFL for allowing Steve Ganson, born in St Helens and a former member of the St Helens RFLC fan club, to be an official in matches involving St Helens RLFC. Ganson was the referee in the first match of the season between Huddersfield Giants and St Helens, in which he disallowed a Huddersfield try. Ganson was also the video referee in the local derby between Wigan Warriors and St Helens at the JJB Stadium. It was suggested that Ganson should not be allowed to referee games involving the Wigan Warriors, who have a strong local rivalry with the St Helens club.
Ganson Gate is a term used by some rugby league fans to describe the refereeing mistakes during a Leeds Rhinos verses Bradford Bulls match at the Millennium Magic weekend. Referee Steve Ganson and video referee Ashley Klein made a series of mistakes that allowed Leeds to win the game in the last minute. Both referees apologised for their errors and were not allowed to referee in the Challenge Cup matches the weekend after.[2][3]
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