France launch official bid to host 2025 World Cup

The French Rugby League Federation has officially launched its bid to host the 2025 World Cup.

France last hosted the tournament in its entirety back in 1972, having founded the tournament in 1954.

Speaking in Paris, French Federation President Luc Lacoste, said: “After the 2024 Paris Olympics, we are preparing for the Rugby League World Cup in 2025 with a major bid that brings together the men’s, women’s, wheelchair and youth events.

“At the heart of this great project is a strong message, ‘sport for all’ which will be reflected, first and foremost, in the choice of host cities and regional metropolitan partners, stadiums, large and small, as well as affordable prices. We will lever the economic and tourist attractiveness of the country as well as a societal and environmental dimension.”

“We intend to incorporate the past with the present for a permanent transmission of this heritage to the next generations. We have appointed Michel Wiener as Directeur Exécutif du Comité d’Organisation France 2025 who has 33 years’ experience as CEO with the La Poste group specialising in marketing and communication, and a wide knowledge of the sport sector.”

Also on the organising committee are Soisic Le Bourg, who has 18 years’ experience in sport marketing and ticketing; Robert Zarader, a business and communications director and member of the GIP board of France 2023; and Dominique Baloup, a school principal and former captain of the French Rugby League team.

The aims and objectives of the 2025 Rugby League World Cup bid are under the banner:

SPORT FOR EVERYONE

• Four competitions in one event and over a month. The project will simultaneously bring together the World Cups of men, women, wheelchair athletes and young people
• In total, the plan is to include 64 national teams with 16 in each competition representing the five continents and encompassing more than 80 matches
• Large and small stadiums, a pricing strategy allowing all audiences to attend the competitions: fans and non-fans, young people, families, works council employees, supporters and tourists from all over the world and not exclusively reserved for an elite audience
• A linked event that is part of that initiated for the Major International Sports Events organised in France in the coming years, using the infrastructures and volunteers gained
• Our project is clearly positioned “at the heart of lives”, emblematic of the UN Charter, Olympic Charter, France Charter, etc.
• Our event, partners and sponsors will be linked to a societal cause (environmental, inclusion, etc.),  following a call for projects which are under the authority of an Ethics Committee created for the event
• Our project is designed to benefit the economy of the country and the territories that will host the competitions, highlighting the economy of tourism, local producers (local products, crafts, etc.) which, thanks to a digital and e-commerce platform associated with the ticket office will benefit from direct spin-offs
• All territories that want to can be associated with the event. The native territories of rugby league (Occitanie, Nouvelle Aquitaine, PACA, AURA) but also those in which this sport is likely to develop (in particular Pays de Loire, IDF) and all others via a process to Expression of Interest.
• Strict cost control by seeking win-win partnerships and rigorous management, innovative income policy with services associated with ticketing and in connection with the territories, the economic model of the project will be that of profitability with a low level of recourse to public funds.