New World Cup format confirmed for 2026

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, eal said:

Well there was no chatter at all in Scotland about the origins of their team simply because only 100 people play the game up there.

People are generally pragmatic about heritage ayers in my experience. They understand context. 

[The Partisan]

Had a little bit of spare time so thought I'd check to see if other sports have reduced their team numbers for a World Cup.

Hockey (or Field Hockey) was 16 teams in 2002 for their world cup.  2 Pools of 8.

This was reduced to 12 teams for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 events. 2 Pools of 6

Reverted back to 16 for the 2018 edition (4 pools of 4)

Was 2 x 35 min halves if comparing endurance levels but now almost all internationals are 4 x 15 min quarters since 2019. 

So a precedent has been set in another sport.

 

As most likely discussed elsewhere ...the number of teams depends if you want your sports world cup to be one of competition or celebration.  Football (soccer) is possibly the only outdoor played fast moving team sport that can claim to do both. 

Namibia is in France at the moment for the celebrations.  It ain't there expecting to be a dark horse. 

If Rugby League ran with a maximum of 12 teams 'World Championship' ...to determine a ...champion, but also held an International Rugby League Cup (no world reference) for teams below this 'top' 12 I'd be ok with that.  The latter played a year after the Championship. 

Possibly even have a P & R system in place with guidelines and standards re eligibility strictly enforced. (For example, a player must have been selected and travelled with a squad to x amount of qualifying games for the respective competition). 

Rugby League 'wishin and hoping' 

Edited September 11, 2023 by The Partisan

[Sports Prophet]

3 hours ago, The Partisan said:

Had a little bit of spare time so thought I'd check to see if other sports have reduced their team numbers for a World Cup.

Hockey (or Field Hockey) was 16 teams in 2002 for their world cup.  2 Pools of 8.

This was reduced to 12 teams for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 events. 2 Pools of 6

Reverted back to 16 for the 2018 edition (4 pools of 4)

Was 2 x 35 min halves if comparing endurance levels but now almost all internationals are 4 x 15 min quarters since 2019. 

So a precedent has been set in another sport.

 

As most likely discussed elsewhere ...the number of teams depends if you want your sports world cup to be one of competition or celebration.  Football (soccer) is possibly the only outdoor played fast moving team sport that can claim to do both. 

Namibia is in France at the moment for the celebrations.  It ain't there expecting to be a dark horse. 

If Rugby League ran with a maximum of 12 teams 'World Championship' ...to determine a ...champion, but also held an International Rugby League Cup (no world reference) for teams below this 'top' 12 I'd be ok with that.  The latter played a year after the Championship. 

Possibly even have a P & R system in place with guidelines and standards re eligibility strictly enforced. (For example, a player must have been selected and travelled with a squad to x amount of qualifying games for the respective competition). 

Rugby League 'wishin and hoping' 

Good research. I am sure there will be other sports which have minimised their competition structures in an effort to improve competition and in turn meet the changing expectation of the sport’s targeted viewers.

I don’t mind where you are leading to with playing minimum number of games, but what happens to the player having never been selected before who has a breakout season? I am sure there is a criteria which could be created, but I am not convinced there needs to be any change in the existing criteria.

[Pulga]

3 hours ago, The Partisan said:

Had a little bit of spare time so thought I'd check to see if other sports have reduced their team numbers for a World Cup.

Hockey (or Field Hockey) was 16 teams in 2002 for their world cup.  2 Pools of 8.

This was reduced to 12 teams for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 events. 2 Pools of 6

Reverted back to 16 for the 2018 edition (4 pools of 4)

Was 2 x 35 min halves if comparing endurance levels but now almost all internationals are 4 x 15 min quarters since 2019. 

So a precedent has been set in another sport.

 

As most likely discussed elsewhere ...the number of teams depends if you want your sports world cup to be one of competition or celebration.  Football (soccer) is possibly the only outdoor played fast moving team sport that can claim to do both. 

Namibia is in France at the moment for the celebrations.  It ain't there expecting to be a dark horse. 

If Rugby League ran with a maximum of 12 teams 'World Championship' ...to determine a ...champion, but also held an International Rugby League Cup (no world reference) for teams below this 'top' 12 I'd be ok with that.  The latter played a year after the Championship. 

Possibly even have a P & R system in place with guidelines and standards re eligibility strictly enforced. (For example, a player must have been selected and travelled with a squad to x amount of qualifying games for the respective competition). 

Rugby League 'wishin and hoping' 

We really don't need to change anything. We need a World Cup that consistently grows. 

The only time that will happen is when we have good leadership. Right now we don't. How can the IRL lose host nations TWICE? It's an unbelievable lack of due diligence.

And now we're back to cost cutting. I don't believe the IRL believe their own lies in saying that they're reducing number to make it "more elite".

 

[Tommygilf]

3 hours ago, The Partisan said:

Had a little bit of spare time so thought I'd check to see if other sports have reduced their team numbers for a World Cup.

Hockey (or Field Hockey) was 16 teams in 2002 for their world cup.  2 Pools of 8.

This was reduced to 12 teams for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 events. 2 Pools of 6

Reverted back to 16 for the 2018 edition (4 pools of 4)

Was 2 x 35 min halves if comparing endurance levels but now almost all internationals are 4 x 15 min quarters since 2019. 

So a precedent has been set in another sport.

 

As most likely discussed elsewhere ...the number of teams depends if you want your sports world cup to be one of competition or celebration.  Football (soccer) is possibly the only outdoor played fast moving team sport that can claim to do both. 

Namibia is in France at the moment for the celebrations.  It ain't there expecting to be a dark horse. 

If Rugby League ran with a maximum of 12 teams 'World Championship' ...to determine a ...champion, but also held an International Rugby League Cup (no world reference) for teams below this 'top' 12 I'd be ok with that.  The latter played a year after the Championship. 

Possibly even have a P & R system in place with guidelines and standards re eligibility strictly enforced. (For example, a player must have been selected and travelled with a squad to x amount of qualifying games for the respective competition). 

Rugby League 'wishin and hoping' 

In fairness, I don't think field Hockey is a real zinger of an example for RL to follow ...

[Damien]

Rugby League has already contracted before, it went from 16 teams in 2000 to 10 in 2008. The precedent is already there within our own sport never mind looking at others.

Then we followed a clear strategy of growing the event and growing the tournament up to 16 teams. It was a strategy everyone was involved in and agreed upon. It was a strategy that was also set for 2025. That was then blown apart overnight because the Aussies now had a leadership that saw their chance to put others in their place and play less games.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Damien

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

Rugby League has already contracted before, it went from 16 teams in 2000 to 10 in 2008. The precedent is already there within our own sport never mind looking at others.

Then we followed a clear strategy of growing the event and growing the tournament up to 16 teams. It was a strategy everyone was involved in and agreed upon. It was a strategy that was also set for 2025. That was then blown apart overnight because the Aussies now had a leadership that saw their chance to put others in their place and play less games.

Crowd figures from WC expansion to 16 nations in 2000 and then again in 2022 demonstrate the strategy failed on two occasions already.

[Damien]

42 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Crowd figures from WC expansion to 16 nations in 2000 and then again in 2022 demonstrate the strategy failed on two occasions already.

There are several mitigating factors that affected the RLWC2021 tournament as you know and these were not a factor in previous ones. That is unless you wilfully choose to ignore the tournament being delayed for a year and the issues caused by that, the after affects of Covid as well as not being able to compare like for like in terms of ticket pricing.

That said, and despite all that, the 2021 tournament had an average attendance of 13,667 compared to 13,646 in 2017 so we actually saw an increase anyway.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Damien

[Sports Prophet]

9 minutes ago, Damien said:

There are several mitigating factors that affected the RLWC2021 tournament as you know and these were not a factor in previous ones. That is unless you wilfully choose to ignore the tournament being delayed for a year and the issues caused by that, the after affects of Covid as well as not being able to compare like for like in terms of ticket pricing.

That said, and despite all that, the 2021 tournament had an average attendance of 13,667 compared to 13,646 in 2017 so we actually saw an increase anyway.

You are comparing an increase of crowd averages for tournaments on opposite sides of the planet, ‘17 in Aus and ‘22 in UK, in markets which have a vastly different affinity for international RL. An increase in ‘22 is not comparable.

The records show pitiful crowds where lowly ranked teams are involved.

The majority of people have spoken. There is very little interest for watching lowly ranked nations and attempts to include them is a costly exercise.

Instead of incorporating those nations into a feature WC event, the better idea would be to come up with a strategy on making more of them competitive enough to be deemed a valuable prospect for the wider public to pay and watch.

In the meantime, if the WC needs to drop to 8 or ten nations to deliver a WC where every match has enough perceived value to pack out minimum 20k crowd, then I think that is what should be done.

[gingerjon]

31 minutes ago, Damien said:

That said, and despite all that, the 2021 tournament had an average attendance of 13,667 compared to 13,646 in 2017 so we actually saw an increase anyway.

A higher average with higher ticket prices, I believe?

[Damien]

7 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

A higher average with higher ticket prices, I believe?

Indeed.

[Damien]

21 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

You are comparing an increase of crowd averages for tournaments on opposite sides of the planet, ‘17 in Aus and ‘22 in UK, in markets which have a vastly different affinity for international RL. An increase in ‘22 is not comparable.

The records show pitiful crowds where lowly ranked teams are involved.

The majority of people have spoken. There is very little interest for watching lowly ranked nations and attempts to include them is a costly exercise.

Instead of incorporating those nations into a feature WC event, the better idea would be to come up with a strategy on making more of them competitive enough to be deemed a valuable prospect for the wider public to pay and watch.

In the meantime, if the WC needs to drop to 8 or ten nations to deliver a WC where every match has enough perceived value to pack out minimum 20k crowd, then I think that is what should be done.

You are the one that brought up crowd figures to show that expansion has failed and you seemed quite happy to make a straight comparison when you thought it would back up your point. If you now don't want to use crowd figures and now want to add other factors that's fine. As I said there are a lot of variables that make comparison worse and its a fact that RLWC2021 was more adversely affected than any other.

I think everyone realises that lower ranked teams have smaller attendances. If that was all that it was about we'd just have a 4 nations. The difference is many think a World Cup is more than just about that.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Damien

[glossop saint]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

There are several mitigating factors that affected the RLWC2021 tournament as you know and these were not a factor in previous ones. That is unless you wilfully choose to ignore the tournament being delayed for a year and the issues caused by that, the after affects of Covid as well as not being able to compare like for like in terms of ticket pricing.

That said, and despite all that, the 2021 tournament had an average attendance of 13,667 compared to 13,646 in 2017 so we actually saw an increase anyway.

I'd actually missed that 2021 had a better average crowd than 2017. Considering all the difficulties that is not a bad achievement. Plenty wrong with the attendance side of 2021 and shouldn't necessarily be using just an improvement on 2017 as a measure but I'm surprised that that fact wasn't shouted about more.