SCOTLAND and Ireland cannot compete at the next men’s World Cup after they were stripped of full member status by the International Rugby League (IRL).
The Celtic pair, plus Italy and Lebanon, have lost full status for failing to comply with the terms of the IRL’s membership policy.
As well as fulfilling governance and financial criteria, full member nations must meet participation targets in the senior, junior and women’s game, have a certain number of qualified coaches and play regular international fixtures.
“We work continuously with member federations to improve their operations and governance, and we are seeing standards increase on and off the field,” said IRL secretary-general Danny Kazandjian.
“Over a long arc, ensuring compliance with IRL’s regulatory framework will result in a bigger, more durable, more prolific sport.
“In many of our members, the most reliable sign of growth is producing more registered Rugby League players who play in organised 13-a-side championships, usually for Rugby League clubs that are themselves members of their own national federation. Our focus is most certainly on that critical local growth.”
The loss of full member status is a damning indictment of the sport in Scotland and Ireland, where it holds a minuscule profile.
Both have previously reached men’s World Cup quarter-finals but their national teams rely heavily on heritage players who have been born and raised in England.
The same is true of Italy and Lebanon with Australian-based players, although the latter will still be allowed to compete at the 2026 World Cup as they had already qualified as a quarter-finalist in the previous tournament.
Rugby League Ireland (RLI) Chairman Jim Reynolds hopes to regain their status within a year.
“RLI thanks both IRL and ERL (European Rugby League) for recognising the significant transformation we have achieved since Covid in addressing the non-compliance issues that have been raised with RLI for the last ten years,” he said.
“We have worked hard to exceed the standards in good governance and with our youth groups becoming one year older, they will now also qualify to allow us regain full IRL membership status this year end.”
With Russia also officially downgraded, two years on from their suspension due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, there are now only 14 IRL full members, and just five in Europe.
With England already qualified for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in a to-be-announced location in the southern hemisphere, the other four – Wales, France, Serbia and Ukraine – will contest European qualifiers later this year.
The winner of that four-team tournament will compete in the 2025 World Series alongside Cook Islands, Jamaica and South Africa – the only full members in their respective regions – for the remaining two spots at a reduced, ten-team World Cup.
Qualification for the women’s event in 2026 is not affected by member status, with Ireland competing in European qualifiers from next month, while no qualification process has yet been set out for the wheelchair tournament.
Scotland and Ireland are now among 20 affiliate members (not including Russia), while there are also 22 observer nations, including Argentina (which has joined for the first time, six years after forming a governing body) and Spain (which has been downgraded from affiliate).
Meanwhile, the national federations for Belgium, Denmark, Ethiopia, Latvia, Saudi Arabia and Trinidad & Tobago have all been expelled following several years of inactivity.
