Rugby League: Lindsay accused of plotting union merger
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Your support makes all the difference.The chairman of the Australian Rugby League, Ken Arthurson, has accused the British Super League's chief executive, Maurice Lindsay, of wanting to scrap this autumn's tour and to merge the game with rugby union.
Great Britain are due to play Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand, but Arthurson says that the only way the tour can be made viable is by playing the ARL.
"I believe if Maurice had his way the whole tour would be scrapped," Arthurson said. "The crazy thing is that if his News Limited controllers would let him he could still turn the whole thing into a huge success by playing the ARL's world champion Kangaroos."
The New Zealand Rugby League president, Graham Carden, is to fly to Britain next week to finalise arrangements for the tour. Lindsay, who is also chairman of Super League's international board, insisted yesterday that it will go ahead as planned.
He called Arthurson's comments "carping from someone who has lost his position and refuses to recognise Super League.
"We will include in our tour an historic first visit by a full tour side to Fiji, as we believe in genuine international expansion. That is what all member countries want, and under Ken Arthurson's previous international chairmanship there was no such ambition."
Arthurson also accused Lindsay of wanting to see a merger between league and union. "We are seeing Maurice for what he is - a man whose ambition is to see rugby league die at the hands of rugby union," he said.
"It's what his masters want and it's no co-incidence that it is Sky television trying to destroy the historic Five Nations' series by isolating England. Nobody should forget that the contracts which bind the Rugby Football League and the Rugby Football Union are with the same News Limited organisation, and for similar durations. Mr Lindsay has both sports primed for a merger that nobody wants."
Arthurson stood down recently as executive chairman of the ARL, but it is clear that taking a less active role will not end his war of words with Lindsay.
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