The RLIF have confirmed Tonga National Rugby League have been expelled from the federation.
The decision relates to the dramatic fallout at Tonga last year. The players threatened to go on strike after a decision to hand Kristian Woolf his notice.
Ultimately, it led to Tonga being withdrawn from the Nines World Cup and their upcoming test matches against Great Britain and Australia. However, they played the games under the name, Tonga Invitational.
Tonga NRL have been suspended by the RLIF since October, and now the federation have taken their vote on its future.
In a statement, the RLIF say they had voted unanimously to expel Tonga by nine votes to five, despite an appeal from the Pacific Islanders.
They say: “TNRL had appealed the original decision and appeared at the SGM to present their case to the membership.
“The membership heard and were able to question testimony from TNRL and from IRL investigators before voting to confirm support for the Board’s original decision.
“IRL now expects, in due course, an application for membership to be received from the Tongan rugby league community.”
