2013 RL World Cup to be held in England and Wales

The 2013 RL World Cup draw has been made with fourteen teams competing in England and Wales. In an attempt to avoid one sided games, some elements of the successful 2008 format have been retained with two "super groups" providing three qualifiers each for a quarter final stage..

Group A  -  3 qualifiers
Australia, England, Ireland, Fiji 

Group B  -  3 qualifiers
NZ, France, PNG, Samoa

Group C  -  1 qualifier
Scotland, Tonga, European qualifier

Group D  -  1 qualifier
Wales, Cook Islands, Atlantic qualifer

Atlantic and European qualifying competitions are scheduled for 2012.
USA, SA, Jamaica and either Canada or Japan will compete for the Atlantic qualifier spot while Lebanon, Serbia, Italy and Russia are expected to compete for the European

Lets hope the RFL have more success in 2013 than they did in 2000 when the World Cup held in the UK almost forced them out of business.

I heard rumours at the time that the then RFL chief Neil Tinnicliffe allegedly sold the TV rights for the World Cup based on minuted conversations held at International Board meetings. Sponsors allied to the ARL allegedly complained about this and the International Board was asked to arbitrate. The International Board (who are the ARL) sided with the ARL, several millions in compensation had to be paid and the chances of the 2000 World Cup was destroyed before it even started. It went on to make big losses and the compensation paid was a large proportion of this. No RL World Cups were held for eight years as a result

I am not pretending that the 2000 World Cup was well organised but the RFL were unlucky with poor weather and travel problems. Neil Tunnicliffe left his post in strange circumstances, the RFL were left to shoulder these losses alone and almost went bust as a result.

A few years later Neil Tunnicliffe wrote a cryptic letter to an RL newspaper in the UK conforming some of this information.

Can anybody else shed some light? 
 

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