The Rugby League European Federation has received its second successful European Commission grant application this year, with the news that the Sports Unit in Brussels has granted it €104,000 for its ‘Governance Foundation Project’.
The project is aimed at strengthening good governance throughout the sport’s burgeoning number of national governing bodies throughout Europe, ensuring they are running themselves in a democratic, efficient, transparent and equitable manner.
Uniquely, it sees England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France acting as mentors to the Czech Rugby League Association, Rugby League Deutschland, Sweden Rugby League, the Latvian Rugby League and the Federazione Italiana Rugby League. The partners will collaborate on a series of projects aimed at strengthening best practice, including liaising with professional football organizations on the Continent to exchange ideas and methods.
RLEF General Manager Danny Kazandjian welcomed the successful bid. “It is excellent news that the Federation has been able to access such funding,” he said. “Our administration is now showing its ability to widen the sport’s revenue streams and materially supporting our members while - at the same time - focusing on an area which is of critical importance. The better our members’ governance practice becomes, the more efficient and productive they will be and also reducing the unhealthy spectre of schism, which has characterised the sport historically.”
This latest grant adds to the RLEF’s most productive financial year since its formation in 2003. The value of the European Cup was doubled by Alitalia recently and the ‘Technical Strategy’ received two grants, one from the EC UK office and another from the Leonardo da Vinci fund in the summer, amounting to €75,000 Euros.
Last week UK Sport International confirmed a grant for the Jamaican Rugby League Association, brokered by the RLEF, to support the JRLA’s expansion into Montego Bay, and UKSI are also in talks with the RLEF on a groundbreaking West African development.
Pictured: the European Commission headquarters.