Adam Hills MBE has been endorsed to become the 33rd President of the Rugby Football League in 2025.
Hills will succeed Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, the Speaker of the House of Commons – and will become the first Australian to hold the honorary position.
He will formally be elected at December’s meeting of the Rugby League Council, whose members were informed of the proposal at their Annual General Meeting in Salford today (July 24) – with an additional change in governance allowing the President to nominate one of two Vice Presidents for each two-year term.
Tony Sutton, the RFL’s Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted that Adam Hills MBE has accepted our invitation to succeed Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP as the 33rd President of the RFL – and that Council will support an extension of the office to encompass two Vice-Presidents.
“There has been no more enthusiastic or eloquent advocate for Rugby League in the media than Adam in recent years, whether as host of Channel Four’s Super League coverage, or welcoming our England Wheelchair World Cup winners as guests on The Last Leg.
“He also has authenticity, having been a mainstay of Physical Disability Rugby League since it was launched in 2018, playing for Warrington Wolves against Leeds Rhinos. We can even forgive him for choosing to represent Australia rather than England a couple of years ago in the PDRL World Cup.
“Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP has been an outstanding President for the last 18 months and he would be the first to point out that his term still has several months to run, before he passes the chains to Adam. We are lucky to have such passionate and persuasive ambassadors to champion our sport.”
The Council members also approved the election of Julia Newton as a Non-Executive Director of the Rugby Football League’s independent Board.
Newton is an entrepreneur, director and trustee of a number of companies and charities over a range of sectors – with her current roles including Independent Non-Executive Chair of GB Taekwondo, and the Chair of Women in Sport.
She joins Sandy Lindsay MBE, Dr Cherrie Daley and Simon Johnson, the Chair, on the RFL’s independent Board, alongside Chief Executive Tony Sutton – with Ed Mallaburn and the former Leeds Rhinos, England and Great Britain forward Jamie Jones-Buchanan MBE as Observers.
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