By Nikolai Smith
A successful Australian bid to host the 2018 or 2022 Football World Cup will cause major disruption to the State of Origin rugby league series and other sporting codes across the Tasman.
State of Origin may have to be moved forward from May and June to a three week period in March because the World Cup would use Australia’s 12 largest sport’s venues from February 2 for nine weeks.
Another way around the lack of venues is to host State of Origin in New Zealand.
NRL chief executive David Gallop told the Sydney Morning Herald “ We don’t want to stand in the way of the World Cup, but it’s difficult to see how we could be expected to fall off the face of the earth. Certainly ideas like running Origin over a three-week period are a major concern to us.”
Football Federation Australia has not yet talked with the major sporting bodies including the NRL and AFL who will be affected if Australia win the World Cup hosting rights.
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