Robert Elstone sheds some light on distribution of government loan

Super League chief executive Robert Elstone says the government’s emergency loan is to compensate clubs on games they will have to play behind closed doors.

All levels of rugby league in the UK has been suspended since March 16 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a return date yet to be announced.

Last week, the government announced they will loan £16million to the RFL to ease financial strain on the game during this difficult time.

Elstone told Sky Sports’ Golden Point Podcast: “It is something the RFL are working on right now.

“I know they’ve got ideas on how that (distribution of funding) might happen and I know they are talking to clubs on views of how that might work.

“To my understanding of it, it is a way to compensate clubs for games they are losing and games they might play behind closed doors so it is a request of funding that has been based on an estimate of what that loss might be.

“Even then, you have the imponderable about how long this will go on and at some point there has to be a line drawn by the government, funders and partners – and that really means it is important that we can get up and running with some rugby league inevitably behind closed doors as quick as possible.”

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