European Rugby League Interim Chairperson, Graeme Thompson, has provided an update following the company’s recent board meeting:

The European Rugby League board held its first meeting of 2022 in February and welcomed new member-elected director, Turkey’s Gurol Yildiz. Following our governance review in 2021 and the agreement of our members to enlarge the board, we are in the midst of a recruitment process to also appoint a new chair and a further independent director, with news to follow towards the end of this month.

Financially, ERL performed well against its 2021 budget, increasing income and reducing expenditure against the forecast, although it should be noted that sadly some of that expenditure was linked to competitions which had to be cancelled owing to the global pandemic. We will now instruct our accountants, Haysmcintyre, to prepare our annual accounts for members’ to approve later in the year.

The board heard progress reports on competitions which are planned for later this year, details of which will be announced shortly and also gave its approval to the staging of a new women’s international competition which the identified members will be consulted upon. We also spent a significant portion of the meeting discussing and agreeing on a response, as one of International Rugby League’s consultees, around several points in relation to qualifying, allocation of berths, and planning for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.

Rugby League has talent, but it's probably best kept on the pitch…

Join our judges, Lloyd Griffith and Oliver Thomason as they search for Rugby League's biggest talent ahead of RLWC2021!#RLWC2021 | @LloydGriffith pic.twitter.com/HP1YvQrz3R

— Rugby League World Cup 2021 (@RLWC2021) February 23, 2022

We continue to respond to the recommendations made by SIGA last year and that we committed to undertaking at our AGM. As such, the board approved identified changes to the company’s policies (which will now become an annual process) and adopted a new Board Diversity Policy to ensure that is embedded within the organisation and that the board more broadly represents the wider membership.

Additionally, we approved an operational plan which allows our staff and board to measure progress against our strategy which was published last year, helping us to prioritise the initiatives of growing participation and developing high quality rugby league.

Finally, the board heard about several initiatives which members are undertaking to develop their federations on several levels as the restrictions associated with the global pandemic recede and playing seasons resume.