St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus has hit out at past RFL leadership and spoken on the prospects of a Super League and NRL ‘merger’, claiming that it could be an “incredible opportunity” for rugby league, if the NRL see Super League as more than just a “rotting carcass”.
Talks and reports of NRL interest in Super League have gone on for much of the 2025 season and some of the 2024 campaign as well with the ever-expanding NRL an apparent lifeline for rugby league in England, which remains in a poor state financially.
The NRL are set to launch their 18th team in 2027 with a Papua New Guinea-based 19th team set to join the competition for 2028. Super League have also expanded but the money hasn’t actually grown enough. In fact, two of the teams joining will be taking half of the central funding that the remaining 12 will earn with the race to move to 14 seeming rushed.
Per reports, it’s also something the NRL did not want to see with their reported vision of Super League being as a ten-team competition where the competition is far tougher and such differences in vision have understandably led to confusion over the state of a possible takeover, something that the NRL have explained they will only do if asked by the sport in England.
One man who was recently asked is St Helens’ chairman Eamonn McManus when speaking at a fan event to launch the club’s 2026 campaign. In a detailed and complex answer, McManus ultimately explained that it really does depend on what terms any NRL involvement is with the Saints chair stating it must be a ‘merger’ and not a takeover, despite him admitting that Super League would be the lesser party.
“We’ve been a badly run sport for too long” – St Helens chair claims NRL could be “solution” to Super League woes
“It depends on what terms doesn’t it,” McManus responded in footage shared by SaintsTV.
“We all know (the game) has a huge shortage of money at every level and it’s got to start at the top and in the top competition in terms of its levels of capital.
“We’ve looked in the past at private equity or individual investors and I just said that the solution is there staring us in the face. If you’re looking for a strategic investor that doesn’t just put money in but puts expertise and added value into a business, there’s no better party to do it than the NRL. I looked at it and just said it’s a perfect marriage.”
Explaining that “perfect marriage” comment, McManus noted that the NRL’s strength of expanding is it’s own weakness as there are not many more frontiers to conquer. Conversely, he claimed that Super League’s biggest weakness which is the overall state of the game is a strength in that there is huge potential to grow.
He argued: “The NRL’s strength is its weakness, the NRL is firing on all pistons and the competition is incredible. The broadcast valuation has quadrupled in the last three of four years and each club has a central distribution of £18 million per year, we have £1.2 million.
“But where does it go? It’s a saturated market. It’s a prisoner of its own geography, it’s a prisoner of its own economy.
“Conversely, our weakness is our strength. Dare I say, we’ve been a badly run sport for way too long. I look back at February 2020 when we’re playing Sydney Roosters in the World Club Challenge feeling pretty satisfied with life… then this meteor out of the sky called Covid came along and to this day, people don’t appreciate the damage that it has done to our sport.”
NRL involvement welcome but as merger not a takeover argues Eamonn McManus
McManus would push on further with his comments about the impact of Covid, arguing that the NRL responded brilliantly whereas the RFL showed poor leadership and have ultimately led to the huge gulf between the two competitions in terms of financial power.
“The converse happened in Australia where they had a leader in Peter V’landys,” he began, explaining that the NRL TV deal “doubled”, before listing the errors of the RFL.
He said: “We went cap in hand to government borrowing Covid loans that we have to repay, and they are very considerable for the next ten years, which is a burden to us. Our TV deal halved because we went cap in hand to Sky.
“The differential between the two sports overnight became massive but that weakness is our strength. If you look at our growth potential with the right level of expertise… the animal of rugby league could become incredibly strong overnight.”
On what could happen, McManus was clear that it should be a merger and not a takeover, something that he believes will shoot rugby league up the global sport standings as it will present a united front that very few sports have.
The St Helens chair explained: “If the two merge, and I say merge rather than a takeover. If you have a single governing body for the game globally, you overnight go up the pecking order in the landscape of sports globally. Very few sports have that advantage.
“It’s a matter of what the deal would be. I’m actually on the working party that’s been appointed by Super League but I just hope that some sense can prevail here and that the Australians don’t see a rotting carcass and just take it as a feeder competition.
“I hope that they look at as a great opportunity to grow the sport in England and in Europe. We’ll be part of it, not the controlling party but a senior party in it. There’s an incredible opportunity here if sense prevails on both sides. In reality, I’m in favour but it has to be done on the right terms.”
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