British Billionaire Marwan Koukash Wants To Introduce English Club Into Expanded NRL

British billionaire Marwan Koukash "is behind an audacious bid to introduce an English club" into an expanded National Rugby League competition, according to Adrian Proszenko of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Koukash, who owns English club Salford Red Devils, "has already secured an international airline to sponsor the budding franchise."  The issue of expansion "will again be on the Australian Rugby League Commission's agenda when the present broadcast deal expires at the end of 2017." While bids for new teams in New Zealand, Queensland, Perth and the central coast in an expanded competition "have been mooted for some time, this is the first attempt to introduce an English-based franchise into the league's premier competition." Koukash: "This the only way the sport is going to grow, through integration between the two competitions" (SMH, 1/24).