• RFL admits schedule ‘very tight’ after bids go in on Thursday • ‘A decision will be needed quickly but we can’t rush it’

The Rugby Football League has admitted the schedule would be “very tight” to accommodate the requests of Ottawa and New York to be admitted in time for next season.

Both clubs will present their cases on Thursday for entry into League 1. The consortia from major North American cities are aiming to follow in Toronto Wolfpack’s footsteps when they outline their plans to Super League clubs and the RFL in Salford. If accepted they would start in the sport’s bottom tier, two divisions below Super League.

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The governing body will make a decision on the bids later in the year but the RFL’s director, Karen Moorhouse, said: “Everyone acknowledges that if 2020 was going to happen for either of them, things would need to move very quickly.

“We understand if it’s going to happen, a decision will be needed quickly, but we can’t rush it. It’s our job as the RFL board to make sure everything stacks up. If they say they’ve got certain commercial or broadcast deals there, we need to make sure there is proof.”

Super League wants to introduce guidelines which would make any new overseas side subject to further scrutiny should they subsequently gain promotion. It is understood the top flight is keen to limit overseas representation to no more than the three existing overseas clubs initially: Catalans, Toronto and Toulouse.

Any further team who secures promotion, such as Ottawa or New York, will have to prove their worth to Super League with separate broadcast deals in North America that would strengthen the competition’s commercial standing across the Atlantic.

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That is an agreement the RFL are supportive of, with Moorhouse adding: “We’re close to finalising an agreement … in terms of extra conditions and the number of overseas teams in Super League.”

Both North American clubs would fund the travel and accommodation costs of visiting teams and would not take any central funding up to the end of the current television deal in 2021.