World Club Series
| Dacia World Club Series | |
|---|---|
Current season or competition:: 2017 World Club Series
|
|
| Sport | Rugby league |
| Instituted | 2015 |
| Number of teams | 6 |
| Country |
 Australia England (RFL)
|
| Series winners |
Super League (1st title) |
| Most titles |
NRL (2 titles)
|
| Broadcast partner |
Nine Network Sky Sports |
| Related competitions |
World Club Challenge Super League National Rugby League |
| Series | |
|---|---|
The Dacia World Club Series is an annual rugby league football competition played between the clubs from the Australasian National Rugby League and the European Super League. The competition includes the World Club Challenge, a single match played between the two champions of each league.
The first series was played in 2015, while the World Club Challenge was first contested in 1976.
The competition began unofficially in 1976 as a match between Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Premiership winners St. Helens. In 1987, another unofficial match took place when Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay invited Manly-Warringah to Central Park.
The first official World Club Challenge was between Widnes and Canberra in 1989. Three further matches, each involving Wigan, were staged in the early 1990s with the 1994 match being staged in Australia. This would be the last time for 20 years that this would happen.
If only we could see a genuine contest between Wigan and Brisbane – a World Club final. Alas, it will never happen. Oh sure, a game might be arranged, but logistics dictate that one side would be out of season, rusty or tired, and away from home.
After the 1994 match logistical issues meant the concept was put on hiatus until it was revived in 1997. With the outbreak of Australia's Super League War in 1995, the World Club Challenge was not staged again until 1997 when the competition was restructured to include twenty-two clubs from the Australian and European Super Leagues. With six rounds in two hemispheres and $1,000,000 prize money, the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage and reportedly lost over $5,000,000. This, coupled with the poor ratings and attendances both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for two seasons.
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Wikipedia