The chair of the Australian Rugby League Commission, Peter V’landys, is expected to discuss sports diplomacy in the Pacific when he attends a White House state dinner on Thursday.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is in Washington DC this week for talks with the president, Joe Biden, and congressional leaders. Albanese will be feted at a state dinner at the White House on Thursday AEDT.
The guest list for the state dinner has not been released, but Guardian Australia understands V’landys is set to attend.
There are also rumours the chair of News Corp, Lachlan Murdoch, may be attending, though this has yet to be confirmed.
Murdoch attended the 2019 state dinner when Donald Trump welcomed Scott Morrison to the White House.
The Nine newspapers were first to report V’landys’s attendance, which comes in the lead-up to the Las Vegas double-header launch next year.
News Corp is the controlling shareholder of the Brisbane Broncos, one of the teams involved in the Las Vegas double-header.
V’landys is seeking to expand the code’s following in the US, but Guardian Australia has been told sports diplomacy is central to his invitation to the state dinner.
US officials are interested in the code’s expansion plans in the Pacific, where Washington is engaged in an intensifying contest with Beijing for influence. Albanese has long backed the idea of a Papua New Guinea-based Pacific team to join the NRL.
In May, anti-gambling advocates reacted furiously to V’landys’s open pursuit of gambling revenue, criticising his description of sport as “wagering content” as scandalous and counterproductive.
Peter Beattie, a member of the ARL commission, told the Nine newspapers: “This is a very rare opportunity that he has been afforded and it’s great for rugby league.”
The former Queensland Labor premier described it as “a networking opportunity from the gods”.
State dinners routinely are attended by prominent business figures, celebrities and diplomatic officials.
Morrison finally confirmed in 2020 that he asked the Trump administration to invite the Hillsong pastor Brian Houston to the 2019 state dinner, after refusing for months to answer the question and deriding the story as “gossip”.
