RFL receive £17.5 million from Sport England

The RFL has today been informed by Sport England that Rugby League is to receive funding totalling £17.5 million over the next four years following the submission of its 2013-2017 Whole Sport Plan.

The Whole Sport Plan contains the RFL’s key strategies and programmes which are focused in line with Sport England’s key objectives on retaining existing Rugby League players and attracting new participants to the sport.

RFL Chief Executive Nigel Wood said: “We will now be looking carefully at the award details of the new Whole Sport plan to see how we take our important community and talent development work forward with the support of Sport England and naturally we are disappointed that Rugby League has not been able to maintain the previous level of funding. Over the last four years Whole Sport funding has enabled us to undertake some outstanding development work, helping to create a situation where more people than ever before have actually played the sport in the past 12 months.”

RFL Director of Participation David Gent said: “Sport England has recognised that we have already taken decisive action to increase the number of people playing Rugby League and improve the experience by moving the playing season to summer.

“We remain committed to developing Rugby League across the country. The focus of the new plan 2013-2017 will be on retention of current players, but we also have a growth target.”

In developing the 2013-2017 Whole Sport Plan, the RFL carried out extensive research with players to develop a real understanding of the Rugby League participant and ensure that the programmes are exactly tailored for them.