Rugby league anger at no knighthoods in 130 years

As demand grows for a first knighthood or damehood for the sport, rugby league officials claim their players have been “poorly treated” by the honors system.

Such a feat has been missing for 130 years of the sport.

The Rugby Football League, which governs the sport, has a spokesperson who said, “It is surprising and disappointing that the relevant authorities have still not determined anyone who merits a knighthood or damehood for their services to rugby league.”

The leader of a cross-party group of rugby league supporters’ MPs suggested snobbery and class prejudice were to blame for the “scandal” of the sport’s star players’ lack of top honors.

According to David Baines, chair of the all-party Parliamentary rugby league group, “This is because they come from working class backgrounds, didn’t go to the right schools, and didn’t mix in the right social circles.”

“Enough is enough, I suppose. It’s 2025, and I and other MPs have made it a priority to change things.

Former Rugby Football League president Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: “Rugby league has a long and proud history and is full of examples of players who have excelled in the sport and inspired future generations to play the game.”

He contends that there is a problem because “none player in the sport, over the course of its 130-year history, has been knighted.”

The Speaker praised rugby league as it deserves the recognition it merits, and hoped to address this issue soon.

Rugby union, in contrast, has received knighthoods for more than 100 years, a term that is frequently associated with middle-class roots. Sir Bill Beaumont was one of the more recent rugby knights, who was recognized in 2018 for “service to rugby union football.”

The Wembley Stadium event will host the sport’s inaugural Challenge Cup Final next weekend.

Mr. Baines said that Mr. Baines’ statement on behalf of the MPs’ rugby league group unfairly denigrated “some of Britain’s greatest sporting heroes.”

That included “legends of the game who overcame racial and class prejudice, like Billy Boston and Clive Sullivan, to contemporary heroes like Kevin Sinfield, “says Mr. Baines.

In honor of his late teammate Rob Burrow, England star Kevin Sinfield has raised more than £10 million to support causes related to motor neurone disease.

Former Welsh rugby league player Billy Boston, who is now 90, was a well-known Welsh-born player from the 1950s and 1960s. He was the subject of a petition that was launched earlier this year to knight him.

We do believe that rugby league has historically received less recognition in various ways, including on honors lists, according to a spokesman for the Rugby Football League.

There have been honors like the CBE and OBE, but not the knighthood. Last year, the Prince of Wales personally presented Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow with their CBEs at their former home in Leeds.

A BBC analysis earlier this year revealed that people from the north of England and working-class backgrounds, which overlap with the rugby league heartlands, received disproportionately few top honors, including knighthoods and damehoods.

Only 6% of the most recent New Year’s Honours went to people from working-class backgrounds and 4% to those from the north of England.

In order to improve diversity and outreach, the government has acknowledged that underrepresentation in the honors has a problem.