The 2025 Rugby League World Cup will be the seventeenth staging of the

Rugby League World Cup The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was ...

and will be held in France in October and November 2025. Beyond the Rugby League World Cup, there will be several other separate World Cups under the tournament umbrella, including the women's, wheelchair and youth competitions. There will be 16 teams playing in the men's, as well as 16 teams playing in the women's, youth (Under-19 men) and wheelchair umbrella competitions.

Host selection

After the U.S. lost the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received £2 ...

bid to England, the

Rugby League International Federation The International Rugby League (IRL) is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. Previously known as the ''Rugby League Imperial Board'', the '' International Rugby League Board'' and latterly the ''Rugby League Internat ...

(RLIF) recommended that the United States and Canada should host the 2025 event after an impressive bid by Moore Sports International. The RLIF Congress reviewed that recommendation at a meeting in November 2016. On 20 November, it was announced that the North America bid had won the rights to host the 2025 World Cup. This would have been the first time the tournament was held outside of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

. On 4 December 2018, plans for the World Cup to be held in North America were scrapped due to financial concerns and that the location of the 2025 Rugby League World Cup would be determined by a new bidding process in 2019. In March 2021, it was reported that France is the preferred destination for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup. France officially lodged a bid later that year, in July. In January 2022, France won the bid to host the world cup. The official announcement announcing France as the host nation was made on 11 January 2022 by French

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Jean Castex Jean Castex (; born 25 June 1965) is a French politician who was the country's Prime Minister from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020, when he joined La République En Marche! (LREM). Castex served fo ...

. It is intended that the tournament will be played at 40 cities across France during October and November 2025.

Teams

Qualification

Venues

38 cities have bid to host matches of the four major tournament of the World Cup. These are:https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/world-cup-news-38-towns-and-cities-bid-to-host-at-france-2025/ Albi, Arras, Autun, Beauvais, Blagnac, Begles, Besancon, Biganos, Bordeaux, Boulazac, Carcassonne, Chambery, Chatillon, Issoire, Le Creusot, Le Mans, Libourne, Limoges, Limoux, Lourdes, Marmande-Tonneins, Martigues, Massy, Montauban, Montlucon; Narbonne, Nice, Paris, Periguex, Perpignan, Pia, Roanne, Salon-de-Provence, Toulouse, Trelissac, Vannes, Vichy, Villefrance-de-Rouergue, Villeneuve-sur-Lot. It is expected that

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

will host the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

and semi-finals of the men's tournament.https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/everything-you-need-to-now-france-rugby-league-world-cup/

Competitions

Seeing an increase from three in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, the 2025 World Cup alongside the primary have three other tournaments occurring simultaneously. Alongside the men's 2025 Rugby League World Cup sits the

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

and

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

world cups.

References

External links

* https://www.france2025.com/fr/ * https://twitter.com/CDMFrance2025 {{Rlwc 2025 in rugby league

International rugby league competitions hosted by France World Cup 2025