Rugby League chief wants to bring harmony
A COHERENT, long-term strategy for overseas teams in the English game is one of the items on the agenda for new Rugby Football League chair Simon Johnson.
Johnson, formerly a senior lawyer with the Premier League and director of corporate affairs at the FA, has been appointed as the head of a new-look RFL board after being its interim chair since Brian Barwick stepped down in July.
He is joined by new non-executive directors Dr Rimla Akhtar, who was ranked 14th in the 2018 Forbes global list of the most powerful women in sport, and Sandy Lindsay, head of a specialist creative communications agency she founded in Manchester in 2002.
The appointments, which will be presented for ratification to December’s meeting of the Rugby League Council, come at a potential crossroads for rugby league, with Toronto on the brink of promotion to Super League and New York and Ottawa waiting in the wings for entry to League One in 2021.
Yet Toronto were only given the green light for promotion – if they beat Featherstone in today’s Championship Grand Final – 48 hours ago and confusion surrounds the criteria for overseas clubs.
Johnson said: “I think it’s fair to say there probably hasn’t been an evidently coherent strategy.
“We’ve got two teams in France, one in Canada, potentially another in Canada and one in New York and I want to see if we can harmonise things so that everybody is clear about the basis on which they’re doing it, how long they’re in for and so on.
“I think Toronto have been a breath of fresh air and, along with Toulouse, have given a positive impetus to the competition. We’ve got to work out how to capture that and how to make it sustainable.”
Johnson says the RFL worked with Super League over Toronto and believes there is now a harmonious relationship between the two governing bodies following the acrimonious split of 2018.
“I’ve put in place a professional game board which will sit under the board of the RFL and will have representatives from the Super League, the Championship and League One and the national game to encourage collaborative working and allow the whole game to think together.
“Rugby League is a pyramid. Super League is only as strong as the strength of the pyramid below it, so we all need to make sure that every level of our game is operating as strongly as possible,” he said.
Johnson says rugby league faces a crucial period leading up to the 2021 World Cup.
“I think the next couple of years are absolutely crucial for us,” he said.
“We’re in the shop window right now and we need to act positively.”
Rugby League is a pyramid. Super League is only as strong as the
pyramid below it