The European Rugby League Board met in August via an online meeting and covered a range of topics across the three areas of the organisation’s strategy; competition, developing members and organisational excellence.

The Board approved amends to the European U19s Championships due to take place next month following the withdrawal of Scotland and received an update on progress with the MEA Championships which will be staged in Ghana at the end September and the Women’s Euro B competition with the Southern Group fixtures due to be announced shortly. Formats and draft budgets were approved for the men’s Euro A and Euro B competitions, the Europeans Women’s both the MEA and Americas Men’s 2025 Rugby League World Cup qualification competitions, with further announcement due later in 2022.

Uganda’s and Ivory Coast’s applications application for membership were formally recorded and terms of reference to appoint Board Observers for the MEA and Americas Steering Committees (as part of the Roadmap to create new Confederations in the two regions) were approved to ensure that ERL remains on target with its obligations to the roadmap.

An update from the Finance, Audit & Risk sub-committee was received and plans for the forthcoming Annual Council Meeting and the election of a new Member-Elected Director were discussed and signed off. The Board also agreed to put into place a working group to create an action plan to bring the newly agreed Board Diversity Policy to life and agreed the steps to complete the annual Board evaluation. 

“It was a very full agenda, which again shows the amount of business European Rugby League conducts and the depth of detail that our executive are involved in” noted Dean Andrew, ERL Chairperson. “Several positive actions arose from the meeting and the Board are now looking forward to meeting with our Members at our Annual Council Meeting which will take place on 15th October in Newcastle ahead of the Rugby League World Cup opening ceremony.”