Ralph Rimmer confident Challenge Cup and Grand Final will go ahead

Drew Darbyshire 22 Apr 2020 3:27 PM

RFL chief executive Ralph Rimmer remains confident that the Challenge Cup final and Super League Grand Final will be played this year.

All levels of rugby league in the UK has been suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The RFL are currently waiting to find out if they will receive financial support from the government to ease financial strain on the sport during these hard times – but Rimmer is confident the Challenge Cup final and Grand Final will go ahead this year.

He told Sky Sports’ Golden Point Podcast: “I’m confident they will. Those two events are the biggest in our calendar so they are vitally important to our sport.

“Broadcasters and commercial partners want to see drama, tension and big finals.

“The solutions that we work on are based on three things: keeping a club solvent, player welfare and competition integrity.

“Player welfare because if we get a limited amount of weeks then you can’t expect players in our sport to play four times a week to complete a competition and competition integrity is really key because in the end we need to create finals that have integrity wrapped around them.

“There is no point in doing something so ad hoc that at the end it means nothing. I’m pretty confident they will take place and I’m pretty confident we’ve got solutions that will land them in the right place at the right time and those are the things that we thread through when we are trying to find a solutions.”

It was confirmed earlier this week that Magic Weekend had been postponed from its planned May date, with the Summer Bash also cancelled.

Super League chiefs hope that they may be able to hold Magic Weekend later in the year, which has left fans frustrated as it means that no refunds are yet being issued for ticket purchases.

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