Papua New Guinea NRL franchise confirmed with expected entry date revealed
A Papua New Guinean franchise will enter the NRL in the not too distant future
Papua New Guinea’s NRL franchise has been confirmed by the country’s Foreign Minister, with the Kumuls side expected to enter the elite competition Down Under in 2028.
After months of speculation, the Kumuls’ franchise and entry into Australia’s elite competition is set to be officially announced next week in Sydney.
The announcement will involve the Prime Ministers from both Australia and PNG – with money from the governments of both nations set to be invested into this expansion.
PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko has revealed more details about the franchise and the plans for it in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.
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Papua New Guinea NRL franchise confirmed with expected entry date revealed
In that interview, Tkatchenko revealed that PNG’s government have set aside the equivalent of $38 million in next year’s budget to begin building facilities for the new franchise team, with over $74 million also allocated for the three years which follow leading up to their entry into the NRL in 2028.
A high-performance centre will be built at the national stadium along with an accommodation village, much like where Olympic athletes stay during tournaments.
Players signed for the team will also be exempt from paying tax on their earnings in a bid to tempt high-profile stars to join them, with the NRL deal that has been struck also boosting the country’s junior pathways in the sport.
Tkatchenko said: “It will really make, I think, a lot of dreams come true for thousands of Papua New Guineans.
“For PNG, it will really boost our economy as well.
“It will also put PNG more on the map.
“This is all about Australia and PNG’s relationship. PNG has gone into this (arrangement) purely for the sport and purely to get an NRL team.”
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Talks over another NRL franchise
Before the PNG franchise enters the NRL in 2028, many at the top of the game Down Under hope to have seen Perth-based outfit Western Bears enter the competition.
Should that happen, it would mean that the NRL would stand at 19 teams by the time the PNG franchise played their first game in the competition.
At this moment in time though, there is still a hell of a lot of work to be done to get the Bears into Australia’s elite as hoped in 2027, with the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) yet to strike a deal on the matter with the Western Australia government.
ARLC chairman Peter V’landys has requested that the WA government contribute $120 million over 10 years to establish a team on the west coast.
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