Tonga National Rugby League (TNRL) was suspended by IRL in October after governance concerns were raised by the office of the Prime Minister of Tonga, the Tonga Sports Council, the Rugby Football League, the Australian Rugby League Commission and the Rugby League Players Association.

The TNRL Board lodged an appeal last month and recently appeared at a special general meeting of IRL to present its case.

However, the membership confirmed the IRL Board decision to expel TNRL by a majority of nine votes to five.

"The membership heard and were able to question testimony from TNRL and from IRL investigators before voting to confirm support for the Board’s original decision," an IRL statement reads.

"IRL now expects, in due course, an application for membership to be received from the Tongan rugby league community."

IRL sees the expulsion of TNRL as an opportunity to rebuild rugby league in Tonga.

As reported by RNZ National, IRL global operations manager Danny Kazandjian said although the world governing body was pleased the majority of members supported the move, there was still a wish that the matter had not dragged on for so long.

"It's taken hundreds of man hours, quite a lot of resources, and we're now looking along with the members to move forward with a new Tonga governing body so Tonga rugby league can continue to contribute in the magnificent way that it has over the last few years," he said.

"I think it's important to point out that Tonga rugby league are not excommunicated from the game.

"It's just the narrow question of the governing body Tonga National Rugby League."

Tonga earned automatic qualification to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England as semi-finalists in 2017.