World Cup snub for Elland Road as Headingley gets vote

The 37,000 capacity football stadium – which has staged rugby league’s World Club Challenge matches and the recent Four Nations final – will play no part in England and Wales’s staging of the sport’s biggest international competition.

Instead, the Yorkshire Post understands Headingley Carnegie is to be named as Leeds’s sole representative in staging games.

Huddersfield’s Galpharm Stadium and Hull’s KC Stadium are also set to receive good news today when the Rugby Football League confirms them among the host cities and venues at a media conference in Manchester.

But Sheffield’s Bramall Lane and Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium are also expected to miss out, meaning there will be no World Cup games staged in the south of the county.

The major surprise though, is the absence of Elland Road, which has proven time and again it is capable of staging the sport’s grandest occasions.

Just nine days ago it was the scene of Australia’s victory over England in the Four Nations final.

A crowd of 34,174 watched the game, just two years after more than 31,000 witnessed the same two teams contest the 2009 Four Nations final. Elland Road also hosted Tri-Nations finals in 2004 and 2005; with a gate in excess of 39,000 attending the former.

It is the second time in less than seven days that the traditional rugby venue of Headingley has trumped Elland Road.

Last Tuesday it was announced that Headingley – which is home to Leeds Rhinos and rugby union side Leeds Carnegie – will host the Heinz Big Soup World Club Challenge between the Rhinos and Manly Sea Eagles on February 17, 2012.

Elland Road had hosted four of the last seven showpiece fixtures between the champions of the northern and southern hemispheres. But a football match between Leeds United and their Yorkshire rivals Doncaster Rovers scheduled for Saturday, February 18, prompted the RFL and NRL to look elsewhere.

But missing out on the World Cup is a bigger loss.

Such a familiar venue for the sport’s showpiece events would have been in line for a number of key group fixtures as well as some crucial knockout games. It will also be a blow to Leeds, as the council lobbied the RFL to host games at both of the city’s premier sport’s stadiums. By the time of the 2013 World Cup, Headingley will have a capacity of 22,000 with redevelopment work scheduled on the South Stand.

The decision to take games to the Galpharm and the KC represents a major success for grounds that have hosted big rugby league games in the past.

Other cities expected to be confirmed are Manchester, London and Cardiff.

Don’t miss our full coverage of the World Cup stadiums announcement tomorrow.