The Olympic Stadium or Wembley, which is due to host the semi-finals and finals of the football tournament during the 2012 Games, are among venues currently being considered as possible hosts of the sport's showpiece event, which was awarded to the United Kingdom at a meeting in Singapore last week.

 

 

Richard Lewis, the RFL chairman, said: "We will be using our heartlands in the north and playing to our strengths but we’ll also be using other stadiums.

 

"We know that it’s going to be extremely competitive in terms of which stadiums we use."

 

Lewis said use of the Olympic Stadium would depend on what happens to it after the Games as original plans to reduce capacity from 80,000 to 25,000 may be revised in the light of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

 

After England were awarded the rugby union World Cup last week London Mayor Boris Johnson offered the Olympic Stadium as a potential venue.

 

Last year it was claimed that London Skolars, who play in the third tier of rugby league, were negotiating with officials to make the Olympic Stadium their new home for the start of the 2015 season.

 

They claimed such a move could prove key to them joining Harlequins, the only other London-based rugby league club, in the sport's Super League.

 

The Rugby Football League (RFL) are hoping to attract bids from the two London grounds and Old Trafford, home of Premier League champions Manchester United, to inject some glamour into the tournament.

 

Rugby League was founded in 1895 when the Northern Rugby Football Union set up a breakaway faction of the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) when they enforced a strict amateur policy.

 

The sport quickly became popular in Northern England but has struggled to make an impact in the south, where rugby union has remained the most popular form.

 

Lewis is hoping the World Cup will help change that.

 

The event is also likely to feature an increase in teams to 12, allowing more developing countries to take part.

One of the first decisions to be made will be the number of competing nations, and the RFL believe they can build on the success of the 10-team tournament in Australia last year.

Lewis, who is also the vice-chairman of the Rugby League International Federation, said: "The business plan has been based on 12 countries, so it is a racing certainty there will be 12.

 

"That is the figure we are working on.

 

"We know we can stage a very successful World Cup, we put together what we believe was a very compelling argument.

 

"A lot of preparation has gone into it and we believe the proposition is extremely robust."
 

The tournament will be the first World Cup to be held in the UK since the financially-disastrous 2000 tournament, which left the RFL in debt.
 

The governing body is confident of learning from the mistakes of that year, when poor crowds and bad weather combined to make for an underwhelming competition.
 

Games in places such as Gloucester, Reading and Belfast failed to capture the imagination and the RFL hope that the novelty of rugby league at venues like the Olympic Stadium and Wembley will capture the imagination of the wider public.
 

But Lewis promised that the wishes of ordinary fans will not be sacrificed.

 

He said: "We want to make sure we give the rugby league fans week-in, week-out the chance to buy tickets at competitive rates.

"We will try as much as possible to have full stadiums, that is an important part of how the World Cup looks."