Pulga

Depends if they're reincarnated into a union family I guess.

Ok. With the internationals I've dealt with that wasn't the case. It's a mathematical equation based on their risk formula.

I can tell you from experience this is not the case. Why would an insurance company care what governing body anyone is affiliated with?

The incident of the MP being kicked out of rugby union for life for partaking of the ceremonial first kick-off of the season in a rugby league game comes to mind...

Obviously COVID has put a halt on a lot of things. We were getting a real roll on until the start of the year. El Salvador is working towards government recognition and had a small amount of training happening with brand new (ie not union converts) players. So it was slowly taking shape. El Salvador has just launched a new website if you want to check it out: https://esrl.es/ Nicaragua had jumped ahead with a Four team domestic competition late in 2019. They are at an advanced stage to have a regional body recognized by the government. In at least 3 of the nations you need multiple regional (department or state if you will) bodies to be set up before you can set up an overarching national body. Unlike in many Commonwealth countries you can't just set up a not-for-profit that would allow you to open a bank account in that name and satisfy the IRL's criteria for Observer or Affiliate status. You need to start a Federation. So paying a lawyer to do the whole process is the only way. We have a group wanting to start playing RL in Honduras who have been playing RU. They're very keen and have a school program. Costa Rica is also wanting to get going and has a very strong leader with years of sports admin behind him. Belize has a group that are interested and we've opened a dialogue between them, Romeo from Jamaica and ourselves. It's a Commonwealth country so it might have some benefits when it comes to the paperwork side of admin. Nothing to report yet but we'll see how it works. Nothing to speak of in Panama and Guatemala really except we've had contact with an English expat in Guatemala and there's a Panamanian playing in the USARL who travels there often and is keen to help out. With Nicaragua being the strongest and El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica all looking the next best it creates a block of 4 neighbouring nations. We hope to have some internationals once COVID is over (fingers crossed) which will bring some good publicity and lure away more union players. We have had contact with the IRL. I wouldn't say we talk with them too much though as there's really no help available. We just have to satisfy criteria to be recognized. That's it. Part of the reason for this Patreon is important is that we don't rely on any governing body. We're open to any help outside of this Patreon. It's just difficult. For instance you can't really get balls from anywhere (as in the whole of the Americas I think). I personally sent over a handful of Steedens to Nicaragua last year and it took 5 months to arrive.

I definitely don't want to proclaim I know more than you. From my outside view and interactions it certainly seems the case.

There isn't on Patreon unfortunately. Do you think a smaller amount would be better? A $2USD option perhaps?

"Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution". If that isn't a summary of the history of rugby union and rugby league in England I don't know what is.

So there's no class system in England? No notions of people being a certain way for playing certain sports or being from certain areas? No bias on reporting certain sports while not reporting others on TV and newspapers?

I'd welcome your help MM!

This is the worrying part that I hope the NRL aren't naïve to. Australia has some pretty vicious media but it's spread amongst all sport. England as a whole seems actively prejudiced against rugby league. The prevalent caste system in England puts rugby league at a disadvantage very unlike it does in Australia. They will be sowing on hostile soil.

I've been putting pen to paper regarding a professional Central American competition. As with everything you have positives and negatives. With the low wages comes low player contracts. Bench Professional soccer players are on less than $1,000 a month. That's what we'd be competing against. We wouldn't even have to match that. Higher cost of living means you need to be paying higher wages. The problem with Costa Rica and Panama are they have the smallest populations. Looking at a good spread of cities above (or around) the magic number of 200,000 inhabitants, both only have their capitals if you don't count satellite cities within their capital's limits. If we're setting something up from scratch we don't want to be going the England route of small cities or even towns hosting professional teams. It doesn't make sense. Central America from the Northernmost city capable of sustaining a team to the Southernmost is the same distance as Townsville to Sydney. So travel is an enormous saving.

It's like many places. Certain areas, sometimes just certain streets and roads in those countries account for much of the crime. If you stay away from those areas you will be fairly safe. In my seven years of developing the game in Central America (mostly El Salvador) there has been zero violence or crime incidents towards anyone involved.

Yep, that's correct except it's US dollars. It will be only the second full-time job in RL in North America as far as I'm aware.

https://www.patreon.com/CCRugbyLeague The Central American Rugby League is (soft) launching it's membership on this very forum. Our aim is simple: to make being a member affordable while aiming to have a stream of income that will allow us to employ a full-time development officer for the 7 nations of Central America. I love talking about the project so if you have any questions or comments I'm happy to chat.