WAKEFIELD Trinity owner Matt Ellis claims Super League’s clubs are still in the dark over what a potential deal with the NRL would look like.
Rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads reported on Monday the Southern Hemisphere competition is pitching to invest £250million over five years in the European league.
But, speaking on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast, Ellis insisted the finer details of a potential collaboration are something of a mystery to him and the 13 other Super League club stewards.
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“We’re all putting our hard-earned money into the clubs…we’ve all come in and all want to be part of growing the game,” Ellis said. “The NRL, we need to just know the deal, it’s as simple as that – what is the deal?
“[It’s] 100 percent speculation. I’ve been a bit surprised, if I’m honest, that we don’t know a bit more detail about it.
“Of course, if the NRL want to come in here and are willing to put big investment into the sport, help the owners out a little bit and grow the game, we need to know about it and know what the offer is.”
NRL chairman Peter V’landys met with his RFL counterpart Nigel Wood during last month’s games in Las Vegas, where Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos faced off at Allegiant Stadium ahead of an NRL double-header.
V’landys made it clear they want “complete control” of Super League and made it clear any deal must be concluded by the end of May or it would not happen at all.
Ellis believes anything which means more money for clubs and less requirement for the owners to keep dipping into their own pockets would be warmly received.
However, one of the biggest sticking points is likely to be which teams and how many would be involved in an NRL-run Super League, which expanded to 14 teams for 2026.
“If they want to come into it and inject a lot of cash and grow the sport, and getting the owners’ investment to go down, I don’t see any owner in the room who wouldn’t want that,” Ellis said.
“But we have to know what the deal is and we have to be properly informed as to what’s going on because there’s all the thing of who are the teams?
“We don’t know the teams there would be, how many teams would be in the comp – let’s get it all on the table, be honest, and see what’s best for the game.”