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Papua New Guinea team to enter the NRL in 2028
Jasper Bruce & Scott Bailey, AAP • December 12th, 2024 1:30 pm
Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP
A team from Papua New Guinea will enter the NRL from 2028 after officially being granted a licence by the league.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his PNG counterpart James Marape met in Sydney on Thursday to shake hands over the deal, the culmination of two years of planning.
The pair reached an in-principle agreement with the NRL in May, and have since been ironing out specifics.
The final legal documents to ratify the team's creation are expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
Australia PM Anthony Albanese says Papua New Guinea's NRL team will have millions of fans from day one
"I am delighted to announce the Australian government is supporting a PNG team to join the NRL from 2028," Albanese said.
"Rugby league is PNG's national sport, and PNG deserves a national team. The new team will belong to the people of PNG and will call PNG home.
"I know it will have millions of proud fans barracking for it from day one. Not just in PNG, but I suspect many Australians will adopt the PNG team as theirs."
The as-yet-unnamed team is seen as key diplomatic tool for Australia to strengthen ties in the hotly-contested Pacific, and will cost the Australian taxpayer $600 million over 10 years.
It will be either the NRL's 18th or 19th franchise, pending further expansion plans into Perth.
Players will be granted tax incentives to relocate to PNG, and will live in a secure compound in Port Moresby to be organised and funded by the PNG Government.
Initial estimates suggest that players will therefore be able to pocket almost double the amount of money they would on the same salary in Australia.
The 10-year deal with the Australian government will commence now and run until the end of 2034.
Some $60 million of it will exist as the licensing fee, with that money to be distributed to clubs.
Another $290 million will be used to support the franchise, while the remaining $250 million will be for rugby league pathways in the Pacific.
The NRL will be unable to ask for extra money through the life of the deal, and the federal government has the ability to withdraw support at any point if PNG signs a security deal with China.
The deal is also contingent on Papua New Guinea building safe, world-class accommodation for players and officials.
Marape also guaranteed players would be safe once they moved to PNG to move to the team.
Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP
"For PNG and Port Moresby, it is a total lifestyle transformation for us," Marape said.
"For the NRL team to be based out of Port Moresby, it gives me enough reason now to ensure Port Moresby is safer, Port Moresby is cleaner, Port Moresby is better.
"Come 2028 I can bet my life on this ... It is on my own international interest to make sure PNG is safer.
"I have daughters and children who will live in PNG forever. The catalyst to make it urgent for me right now is the three-year window I have until 2028.
"We want to make it safe for our players, we want to recruit the best players and we want to nurture the younger ones to play."
ARL Commission chairman Peter V'landys also insisted the move would have an impact for the NRL across the entire Pacific.
"This new club will solidify rugby league's role as the unifying language of our region," V'landys said.
"Roughly half the funding in this historic agreement with the federal government will go to grassroots football and community programs in PNG.
"It will also flow across the Pacific, including to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
"The new PNG team provides the NRL with a new 10 million-plus audience, many who will go from being casual fans into engaged fans.
"Just as importantly the pathways investments will provide many new and exciting players to the game."
