RFL in no rush to confirm structure for 2019

Clubs will enter the 2018 season without knowing how it will impact the league set-up in 2019, RFL acting chief Ralph Rimmer has confirmed.

Talks over a potential change to the game structure has been ongoing for a while, and an update had been promised prior to the start of the new season, however this will now not happen.

It means promotion and relegation spots are unknown, while the Million Pound Game could ultimately be rendered pointless.

But Rimmer says he is not concerned.

He said: “The discussion is ongoing. I think the clubs are going to go into the season and do as well as they can, so it won’t affect any of that.

“Clearly the future of the sport is the bigger question, and that involves all the different stakeholders – commercial partners, broadcasters, they all need to be in that equation.”

When pressed on a timescale, and the prospect of getting to July or August without a solution, Rimmer was unmoved and said that clubs were in regular dialogue.

He added: “That’s probably right, but nevertheless we’ve got to get to the right place.

“I don’t think there’s anyone that sits around the rugby league tables that doesn’t care about the entire sport. They want to grab attention and drag people into the game and make them love the sport, and there may be differences of opinion, but the RFL’s job is try and make some sense of all this.

“We are guilty at some points of making changes in the sport, and we need to make sure the next set of changes are going to set us up for the future.

“So it’s important that we take time to make the decision rather than meet a fixed deadline that isn’t right for us.”

Rimmer also confirmed that he is interested in becoming a permanent successor to Nigel Wood.

Eddie Hearn has been outspoken about the future of rugby league, creating speculation over his involvement, but there has not been any direct dialogue with him as yet.