“Moving forward together” was the keynote from the Rugby League European Federation annual congress and ACM, held virtually on Saturday. Over 30 countries gathered online, among them Rugby Football League CEO Ralph Rimmer.

The Council overwhelmingly supported the board’s proposal to initiate a governance review, which would have built into it member input at all stages and independent assessment. The Council also strongly supported Serbia’s call for an increased domestic player quota in various European Championship competitions.

Graeme Thompson was re-elected as a member-elected director of the RLEF board and joined by Wales RL chair Brian Juliff, who replaces Serbia’s Colin Kleyweg. Mahdi Choudhury had his appointment as an independent director ratified.

RLEF chair, Maurice Watkins, CBE, commented: “It was excellent to see, if not be with, everyone and commend them on their work at such a trying time. We would like to thank Colin for his valuable contribution as a board member over the last two years. I welcome Brian, his long term experience in the sport will be an asset to us.

“The frank, robust and honest debate we expected was not compromised by the circumstances of the meeting and everyone who contributed spoke positively about moving rugby league forward,” Watkins added. “In many respects, this is the dawning of the next era. We will have a new general manager in place soon and the governance review will enable us to ensure that we emerge into a new period of our development.”