Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Australian players will be paid a flat fee of $40,000 for this year’s World Cup, while players from other nations will have to settle for only $850 a game.
The Kangaroos are not only favourites to be the best team at the World Cup in October and November, but they will also be the best-paid team after a deal struck between the ARL Commission and Rugby League Players’ Association.
France was initially scheduled to host the Cup in 2025, but organisers withdrew due to financial difficulties. The ARLC stepped in to host the tournament, and wanted to make sure players wearing the green and gold were appropriately compensated at the end of a long league season.
The ARLC paid the International Rugby League for the hosting rights, with a local organising committee entrusted to pay for flights, accommodation, meals and the $850 match payments to players from all nations, except Australia, as well as those taking part in the women’s and wheelchair competitions.
Teams will play three pool games at the World Cup. The top four sides will then play in the semi-finals with the winners to meet in the final. Players from teams other than Australia will be paid $4250 in match fees if they reach the final, just over 10 per cent of what the Kangaroos will get, regardless of how well they perform.
The ARLC is in a strong position to bankroll Australia, and while there is nothing stopping other nations from topping up payments to their players, most of those governing bodies are struggling financially.
The Rugby Football League – the governing body in England, which supports the national side – is still locked in a legal battle with the IRL for what it claims are unpaid fees from hosting the World Cup in 2022.
The $850 match payments are a fraction of the $30,000 NSW and Queensland players receive for each State of Origin game. Those payments are included in the collective bargaining agreement between players and the NRL.
Other match payments covered by the CBA include the Pacific Championships, where players receive $3000 a game, including Australia, and the All Stars fixture, which is $7000 a player.
The yawning pay gap between Australia and the other nations has not stopped players such as Payne Haas, Jarome Luai and Haumole Olakau’atu turning their backs on Australia to represent Samoa and Tonga respectively.
There was a suggestion Haas would return to Australia, but the prop said last month: “I’m Samoan, mate, there’s no way I could turn my back on a country like that. It’s not me as a man [to switch].”
Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters was unaware of the pay disparity, and said there was no extra pressure for Australia to get the job done as the tournament’s top earners.
“There’s always pressure when you play for Australia, and I also think the financial rewards are not an incentive for any player playing international rugby league – it doesn’t come into it, they’d all do it for nothing,” Walters said.
Walters could be on the lookout for a new captain should Isaah Yeo be missing because of a pec injury, with Harry Grant, Cameron Munster and Nathan Cleary all potential candidates.
England coach Brian McDermott said the growth of the sport had stalled in the northern hemisphere, but said: “I think the English players will get paid what the RFL is capable of paying them … I want them to get as much as they possibly can.”
McDermott has reached out to several Australian players, including Canterbury’s Max King and Sydney Roosters pair Victor Radley and Billy Smith, who are all keen to represent England. He has also spoken to Roosters and Queensland Origin playmaker Sam Walker.
“I doubt I’ll get a phone call, and I’ll imagine he’ll pursue green and gold, but the door isn’t shut,” McDermott said of Walker.
Increasing World Cup payments will be on the agenda when powerbrokers sit down to begin the next CBA negotiations after the ARLC signed off on a record $5.3 billion seven-year broadcast deal, which starts in 2028.
