Papua New Guinea to enter NRL from 2028 in $600m deal

The Pacific island nation will officially enter the NRL in four years in a $600m deal that mixes rugby league with diplomacy.

Papua New Guinea will officially join the NRL from 2028 with a Port Moresby-based team in a major agreement aimed at bolstering security relations and strategic trust between the two countries and dashing China’s growing influence in South Pacific.

Australia will pay $600m to prop up the initial 10-year “rugby league for diplomacy” deal, which was confirmed in a joint press conference between Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape on Thursday.

“Rugby league is the national sport of Papua New Guinea and PNG deserves a national team. The new team will belong to the people of Papua New Guinea,” Mr Albanese said.

“It will call Port Moresby home.”

The financial investment includes a $60m payment to the NRL for a licensing fee, plus $290m for franchise support, and $250m to bolster rugby in the Pacific programs, with the first payments to begin this financial year.

Of the $600m, $480m is from new funding, while the remaining $120m was sourced from existing resources from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape and Anthony Albanese confirmed the deal on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire via the Australian Prime Ministers Office

Australia’s withdrawal of financial funding will also immediately terminate the PNG team from the NRL.

PNG has also committed to building safe, world-class accommodation for players and officials and implementing tax incentives to boost the competitiveness of the franchise.

Behind PNG’s pending entry is also a security agreement to ensure the continuing strategic trust between the two countries that will not be made public.

While Mr Marape said China would remain a “great trading partner,” PNG had made a “deliberate choice to have Australia as a security partner”.

“In security, closer to home, we have the synergy and our shared territory needs to be protected, defended, policed … and in that context, we make this call, and the NRL commercial system fits in neatly with it,” he said.

The deal reached an in-principle agreement in May following 18 months of negotiations between the two countries and the Australian Rugby League Commission, led by chairman Peter V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.

Mr Marape said PNG entering the NRL strengthened the country’s relationship with Australia. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

Mr Marape said PNG entering the NRL was “pivotal in anchoring the PNG-Australia relationship” amid an increasingly conflict-ridden global climate, citing Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

“In a world that is currently conflicted all over, I see us as a leader of my country with concern … and the potential of conflict into the future,” he said.

“We want to preserve our Pacific, safe and peaceful and good for all of us to live in, especially our children.”

Mr Albanese echoed Mr Marape’s comments.

“I think that today is a day where people will look back in five years, 10 years, 20 years and see that this was a day where the relationship between our nations was cemented even further,” he said.